A female school bus driver has been praised as a hero after she saved 20 children from a burning bus.

Reneita Smith reportedly took each child from the vehicle one-by-one after the school bus she was driving in College Park, Maryland, caught fire. She then entered the bus to check there were no more children left on board.

The blaze was reported at around 4:45pm on Monday near 51st Avenue in the area. The cause of the fire is being investigated, WTVR reports.

A dash-cam video taken of the school bus fire shows the vehicle ablaze in the street, with plumes of black smoke billowing out of its roof and into the air.

An image of the bus after the fire showed it had been gutted by the fire, with the top half of the vehicle blackened by the blaze.

Local Fazlul Kabir posted a picture of the burned out bus on his Facebook page and one showing Ms Smith. He quoted her as saying, “I am a mom of two kids, it’s my job to save them.”