Teenagers just 'looking for something to do' save 90-year-old neighbor from house fire

Hope Schreiber
·Writer

Four Oklahoma teenagers were just "looking for something to do" when they saved their 90-year-old neighbor's life during a house fire, according to KTUL.

The boys had been at 16-year-old Seth Byrd's house when they were about to leave to get something to drink from their local QuikTrip. However, as soon as they stepped outside, they smelled burning.

"It smelled kind of like burning rubber. Then, we heard the house alarm go off," Dylan Wick, 16, told KTUL.

Catherine Ritchie, Byrd's neighbor, who has lived in her Sapulpa home for 58 years, said she was getting ready for bed in the bathroom when she "turned around, and my bed, the head of my bed, was covered in flames."

Ritchie attempted to put out the flames herself but couldn’t get the fire under control. Eventually, she called 911 and hit her emergency call button.

She tried to escape her home, but the smoke proved too powerful. "I felt along the wall, and I went into the closet instead of the door to get out of the room. I finally did get to the door," she explained.

The boys attempted to break down her door to get inside when Nick Byrd, Seth's young brother, only 14, was able to gain access through Ritchie's back door. That's where he found Richie in the hallway, which was filled with smoke.

"This young boy was just right there," Ritchie said, "He picked me up. I said, 'I can walk,' and he said, 'We're getting out of here.'"

"I just kind of heard her. I went to the right of the house and no one was there. I went to the left of the house and I saw her in the hallway, so I just grabbed her and took her to Seth," Nick said.

Ritchie could only describe her feelings of the experience in one word: "grateful." But the young men say that ever since that night, their lives have changed "for the better."

"They were just special, as young as they were," Ritchie said of her heros.

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