Four Teenage Boys Rushed to Burning Home to Save 90-Year-old Neighbor Trapped Inside

A 90-year-old woman is alive and well thanks to a group of teenage boys who came to her rescue one evening when her house suddenly caught fire. Catherine Richie had been in the bathroom of her Sapulpa, Oklahoma home last month when she turned around and saw that her bed had somehow become engulfed in flames.

Richie spent some time trying to extinguish the flames before she eventually gave up, called 911, and pressed her emergency call button. When she tried to evacuate the house, however, she found that she could barely make her way through the smoke.

Meanwhile, four boys ranging in age from 14 to 17 years old were leaving the neighbor’s house so they could get something to drink from the nearby convenience store. When they smelled smoke coming from Richie’s house, they immediately jumped into action.

As one of the boys attempted to get help from the other neighbors, the other three youngsters attempted to break into the house from various entrance points. 14-year-old Seth Byrd eventually managed to get in through the back door, and upon finding Richie lost in her smoky hallway, Seth picked her up and carried her outside.

One of Richie’s ten children, Missy Ritchie Nicholas, later wrote a blog post to praise the young men for taking action.

“Kids who are told about all the things they aren’t old enough to do saved the life of the most precious and beloved woman we know,” wrote Nicholas. “Young men who risked their own lives, their own safety, perhaps their good standing with their parents who might have chosen for them to do otherwise, and they carried my mother out of her burning home into the street, where firetrucks and ambulances would soon arrive.

“Thank you for your selfless acts of heroism and courage,” she added. “Thank you for not allowing this to be the tragic end to our mother’s amazing life. Thank you for staying with her, hugging her, and helping her feel less alone until we could get to her. Thank you for being the kind of young men who thought about another person above yourselves.”

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/oklahoma-teens-rescue-elderly-neighbor-from-burning-home/