BUFFALO, NY (WGRZ)  Richard Lucas doesn't like being called a hero, but the two families he saved from a fire cannot think of a better way to describe him.
As he drove his No. 16 bus, filled with passengers, down Buffalo, New York's South Park Avenue early Monday morning Lucas noticed smoke coming from the back of one of the homes.

"I decided it didn't look right so I stopped," Lucas, a three-year veteran of the Niagra Frontier Transit Authority said. "I ran up to the house and I beat on the front door."

The house was a two-family home and the 10 people inside were sound asleep.

"Then I heard the bus driver banging on the door, and said 'Get out,'" said Emily Hunter, who lived upstairs. "Then I grabbed my kids, my nephew and ran out the door, and was just in flames."

Juan Huertas, who lived downstairs with his wife and three children, said they all could have died without Lucas.

"I woke up to a guy screaming in the house," Huertas said. "I had no idea who it was, and then I heard my wife screaming get out of the house. "

Hunter started to tear up when described what Lucas had done.

"I just wanted to thank the bus driver. That's my guardian angel," she said."

But none of the people inside had the opportunity to personally thank Lucas.

Once everyone was safely out of the home, Lucas jumped back onto the bus and finished his route.

"I knew I had to be at the Victory Center," Lucas said. "People have got to go to work. That's what we do."

"When I ended up talking to my mother and I talked to my two sisters, sort of, it hits home," Lucas said. "You realize that maybe you did do something different. Something that, you had a chance to do and you made the right choice."

Lucas, who was back at work Tuesday, said he was going to call the families after his shift.