It’s something anyone would have done. Well, at least it is if you ask Calgary transit driver Vincent Fleck.
He was behind the wheel of the 145 bus in the community of Redstone at around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning when he saw flames outside a home.
He stopped his bus, jumped out and bolted to the front door.
READ MORE: Calgary Fire Department responds to house fire in the northwest
“I was hoping they would hear the bell and hear me banging on the door and wake up,” Fleck said.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Agata Bastarache and her husband own the home. They live there with their two kids, grandmother and grandfather.
“I’m a little shaken,” Agata said. “It’s hard to fathom the fact that we might not have made it out.”
Marsha Bastarache, the kids’ grandmother, woke up to Fleck banging on the door.
“I jumped out of bed. I didn’t know who it was.”
She woke up the rest of the family and everyone, including their dog and bunny, made it out safely.
READ MORE: Dog alerts owners to fire which destroyed 2 Summerside homes
The flames spread quickly, according to Fleck.
“They were, I think, about three to four feet up… By the time they were out of the house, they was over eight feet and that wasn’t very long.”
“We’re thanking our lucky stars,” Agata said. “Had he not come banging on my door we probably would have slept through it and who knows if we would have been here today.”
Fire crews were able to knock down the flames before they spread to the inside of the home. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Fleck stuck around the fire scene and offered the family yet another helping hand.
“We were all still our PJs, in the cold and he said: ‘Come on over and sit in the bus,'” Marsha said. “So we took the rabbit, dog and two grandchildren and we went and sat in the bus.”
Fleck stayed at the home until nearly 5 a.m., allowing the family to keep warm inside his bus.
READ MORE: Family escapes, home destroyed in Coquitlam house fire
The next afternoon, he returned, and Agata and Marsha greeted him with a warm hug and a handshake.
The humble hero brushes it off as no big deal.
“It’s the same as any one of us would have done, really.”
But the Bastarache family is forever grateful.
“The bus driver, he earned his wings last night,” Marsha said. “He’s an angel. God bless him.”