Four Teens Break Into Home To Save 90-Year-Old Woman Trapped in Blazing Housefire
In Proverbs 30, a man named Agur the son of Jakeh discusses things that never seem satisfied. In addition to parched ground and death itself, he states, “The fire never says, ‘Enough!'”
If you’ve ever watched a conflagration tear through a building or consume a drought-stricken forest, you know exactly what he meant. So, too, does a 90-year-old Oklahoma woman named Catherine Ritchie.
According to KTUL, Ritchie had spent nearly six decades in the same Sapulpa-area home, no small feat in today’s highly mobile world. But her tenure in her property came to an abrupt and almost fatal end.
A fire mysteriously broke out in her home, and it didn’t start in just any room. It began in her bedroom.
Her daughter, Missy Nicholas, chronicled her mother’s turmoil on her personal blog. “After brushing her teeth and hair, she turned around to find her bed completely engulfed in flames,” Nicholas wrote.
From there, things only got worse. Ritchie quickly found herself trapped in the room, unable to find an exit.
“She made an attempt to extinguish the flames herself by throwing blankets and pillows on the fire,” Nicholas said.
“The smoke and heat were so overwhelming that she immediately got disoriented, gave up fighting the fire and decided to flee.”
However, Ritchie couldn’t see much of anything through the smoke. “She walked into the closet several times thinking it was the door that leads to the hallway,” Nicholas stated.
However, two things ended up saving her life. First, Ritchie pressed an emergency call button that she wears around her neck, sending out an alert to first responders.
Second, a quartet of bored teenagers came to her rescue. There at the start of summer break, Seth Byrd, Nick Byrd, Dylan Wick and Wyatt Hall were engaging in a time-honored activity shared by numerous teens down the years.
“We were just sitting around looking for something to do,” Wyatt said. In fact, they almost missed the excitement.
“We were actually fixing to leave,” Seth explained. “We were fixing to go to QT to get something to drink.”
But as they stepped outside, they noticed a terrible stink in the air. Then they heard the blare of an alarm.
They immediately sprang into action, battering down doors, dialing 911, running to a neighbor for help and rushing inside the house. By then, Ritchie had made it into the hallway, but she was still disoriented.
“I just kind of heard her,” Nick said. “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.”
A grateful Nicholas said, “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.”
“That’s what I have to think,” explained Ritchie, who said she was grateful for the teens who literally helped her out. “They were just special, as young as they were.”
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