Life moves rapidly, and what begins as an average day may swiftly turn into something you never saw coming. This is what happened to Rocco Arcese, a youngster from New Jersey who went from being an ordinary kid to a real-life hero while on his way to Joyce Kilmer Middle School.

At first glance, it appeared to be a routine day for the fourth-grader. By 10 a.m., though, he was being commended for his swift actions.

The 11-year-old had been going about his regular routine, preparing for school and walking to the bus stop. He was the first stop on the bus route, so he never had to wait long.

When the school bus arrived, Rocco climbed aboard and went about 300 yards down Chapel Road before smelling something strange.

He could smell something burning that reminded him of burnt tires and decided it was better to notify the driver. He explained in an interview with CBS New York:

“I said, ‘We should get off.'”

“And he was like, ‘Yeah, I’m packing up!”

Rocco and the bus driver were able to escape from the bus just minutes before it caught fire because of his fast thinking and excellent sense of smell.
Firefighters subsequently said that the engine compartment at the front of the truck had encountered a technical malfunction. Within minutes, flames overtook the school bus, burning the seats and shredding the front end.
“It was quite hot. “The scene was very hot,” Rocco’s mother, Stacy Perone-Arcese, claimed.

Police and firefighters rushed to the site, and the bus was eventually taken away.

While the firefighters were putting out the fire, Rocco called his mother to say he wanted to be picked up. A police officer stopped her when she arrived.

“The officer told me that they talked to Rocco, that he was safe, and that he was very calm and very brave,” she explained.

“They said he was the calmest kid they’d ever seen in a situation like that.”
“I wasn’t scared. “I’m not sure why,” Rocco subsequently revealed.

The response from her son didn’t completely surprise Stacy. He appears to function well under duress as an award-winning downhill racer. “That’s the kind of kid he is,” she said, according to the Mahwah-Ramsey Daily Voice. “Nothing rattles him.”
“I’m kind of glad there weren’t any other kids on that bus,” she went on. “They may have been afraid. Rocco is unique in that he understood just what to do.”

The fourth-grader says this isn’t the first time he’s smelled smoke on a school bus, but he and his mother hope it’s the last.

A few weeks after the incident, the Mahwah incident department shared a photo on Facebook with the message:

“Last night, Chief Warnet made Rocco Arcese an honorary Mahwah Firefighter. Rocco smelled smoke on his school bus on June 12th and quickly informed the driver. The driver then stopped, and Rocco got off the bus. The vehicle was soon entirely engulfed in flames. Nobody was harmed as a result of Rocco’s words. We welcome Rocco to the team and hope to see him during drill evenings.”

“Our elected officials also commended Roco, but we know he probably wants to start driving Engine 425 more than anything.”

It’s fantastic that Rocco brought up the fragrance. Otherwise, both his and the driver’s lives would have been jeopardized.