CARMEL – A school bus driver who went home for lunch Tuesday was credited with preventing a house fire.

The bus driver, whose name wasn’t immediately available, noticed smoke inside of a small, one-story house at 575 Five Road just before 12:30 p.m. and had a neighbor call for help, according to Carmel Fire Chief Mike Azevedo.

“We’ll call it a save but we had help on our side,” Azevedo said Tuesday night.

When Azevedo and other firefighters arrived, they found the house, which was not occupied because it was undergoing renovations, filled with smoke.

When they entered, they found that a propane heater had tipped onto its side and had burned a 1-by-2-foot hole in the kitchen floor, Azevedo said.

Though a portion of the floor was charred, it did not ignite, likely because of lack of oxygen, he said.

Damage to the house, owned by Doug Small, was minimal. Azevedo said firefighters cut out a 4-by-8-foot section of flooring and removed it. He said 13 firefighters from Carmel, Etna, Stetson and Hermon went to the scene.