A school bus driver called 911 after seeing flames coming from the back of an apartment building and jumped into action, reported Fire Engineering News.
Keith Whitaker, a school bus driver for the Ithaca City School District in New York, was running his bus route when a flicker of light from an apartment building caught his eye.
He reportedly stopped the bus after alerting authorities and ran inside to knock on doors in order for people to come out of the building. No students had yet boarded the bus by this time.
Whitaker then grabbed a fire extinguisher from the bus and ran inside the building to start putting out the flames. Five minutes after reporting the fire, authorities came to the scene. According to the Ithaca Police Department, no injuries were reported. An investigation by the New York Office of Fire Prevention was conducted and it was revealed the fire was started intentionally by using an accelerant, police said.
Whitaker was publicly thanked for his quick thinking, which possibly saved the residents of the building.
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