A hero by any definition but his own, a taxi driver may have saved the lives of as many as six passengers after their bus driver was set alight in a fatal attack in Brisbane's south.
It was just after 9am in the multicultural melting pot of Moorooka when Aguek Nyok turned up early for a haircut and ended up having to kick in the door of a burning bus.
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Bus driver killed in fire attack
A bus driver in Moorooka, Brisbane has died after a passenger poured a flammable liquid over the driver and set him alight. Vision courtesy ABC News 24.
He saw the alleged attacker, 48, run out of the bus with his clothes on fire as the casual bus driver was burned to death and the vehicle rapidly filled with smoke.
Six passengers, including a frantic mother and her two children, were trapped on board up the back as the driver side mirror blew out from the intensity of the fire.
![Taxi driver Aquek Nyok was hailed a hero after kicking the bus back door open to let out passengers.](/web/20161030234735im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/c/z/p/x/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsdfem.png/1477712518869.jpg)
"I realised people, they were screaming at the back door," Mr Nyok said.
"They were saying 'please open the door, please open the door'."
At first, the 31-year-old thought the driver might be able to open the door, when he realised that wasn't possible, Mr Nyok rushed to the back, side door, which he said was jammed closed by the automatic mechanism.
"It was really hard," he said.
![The driver "stood little chance" after being set alight, police said.](/web/20161030234735im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/c/w/g/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsdfem.png/1477712518869.jpg)
"I came to push it with my hand, nah. And I did the first kick, nah, the second kick nah, the third kick does the time."
Mr Nyok said it took three kicks to force the door open and there was too much smoke to even attempt to rescue the driver.
![Footage of the smoke billowing from the bus at Moorooka.](/web/20161030234735im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/c/y/k/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsdfem.png/1477712518869.jpg)
Horrified witnesses, police Superintendent Jim Keogh and Commissioner Ian Stewart all praised the man's "heroic" actions.
Eyewitness Clair Savage described the taxi driver was a hero.
"I just said to him 'you just saved people's lives'," she said.
But Mr Nyok humbly played down his potentially life-saving role.
"Everybody can do that," he said.
"You help if you could. You do something if you can."