Sunday, December 12, 2010

Hero bus driver saves three from fire

Pretty incredible news story that came out last week. From the Ottawa Citizen:

The transit worker was driving his Route 5 bus when he saw a building on fire, the memo says.

After contacting the transit control room, he ran out of the bus and into the building, eventually making his way up to the third floor. He then kicked open the door and helped evacuate the apartment of the three people inside, Mercier wrote.

The driver, Peter Paquette, is a former firefighter, according to CTV News. And according to his wife Sandy Maxwell Paquette, as quoted in a CBC article, he "won't like" the attention that comes with being hailed a hero, but I think it's probably a fair label for a guy who saved three people (and a dog) from a fire.

With all the focus people have on how much bus operators get paid, how early or late their bus is, or how grumpy their driver was on a given day, we often forget that there are plenty of terrific drivers out there, too. Paquette's is an extreme example, but there are very often small ways bus drivers help riders as well as everyday citizens. For that, those drivers deserve our thanks.

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