OKC Man Feeling Thankful After Fire Nearly Killed Him Twice

An Oklahoma City man was almost killed by fire twice early Thursday morning but he says he has plenty to be thankful for. 

"Excuse the mess" Victor Medina jokes as he takes us into his burned home.

Medina has a great attitude for a guy who just lost everything. 

His sons and one of their friends were in the kitchen of his home on Southwest 62nd Street getting food ready for Thanksgiving at about 1:30 a.m. when fire broke out in one of the bedrooms.

"The heater was over here.  The bed, this was the bed over here.  And we just heard a big boom and I guess it just blew up." Medina recalls, "In a matter of minutes. Wyatt come over here, my son he was over here they started spraying. Even the neighbors spraying water in here and it wasn't happening.  I mean flames were going everywhere.  It was just, it was too much."

Any other day Medina says he would have been in bed at 1:30 in the morning.

 "Any other time we would have been right there in that bed.  And as fast as that fire flared up and burnt that whole section of that house we probably wouldn't have made it out."  Medina said.

Firefighters put out the flames and Medina decided to stay the night in his truck.  He was afraid looters would rip him off. 

A few hours later, a news crew woke him up. 

"I was sleeping in my truck and then like I heard a knock on the window they're like 'hey your truck is on fire.'  I get out of the truck and then boom it blows up." Medina said.

Firefighters believe the truck had an electrical problem.

Medina didn’t have fire insurance on the house.  He lost everything he owns, and he almost died, twice in a matter of hours. 

That’s where that great attitude comes in. 

"I said son I lost everything.  We lost everything.  He said dad, ‘you're alive.  My brother's alive. I'm alive. We're, God's got us in his hands.’  He said we are all alive and that's all that matters. I said amen." Medina said, "Hey, I got God on my side."