Neighbors Complained About Home Months Before Deadly Fire

Two people are dead after a home caught fire in southwest Oklahoma City around 1:30 a.m. Monday.

The home didn't have power or water, and neighbors had complained about the transients who called the boarded up house home.

Firefighters responded to a fire at the house about a month ago and the City was taking steps to have it torn down.

Neighbors wish that process was faster.

“This had been going on for quite a while,” said Betty Copeland who has lived near the site of the fire near SW 40 and Broadway for 40 years.

Copeland and others called the place a drug house frequented by the homeless and prostitutes.

Monday morning, a woman who said the owner of the home gave her and her husband permission to look after the place spoke to News 9 about who was inside.

“We took in a lot people here, a lot of people that were homeless. We were trying to get them out of the cold,” Angela O’Daniel said.

Copeland said someone from the home would often tap into her outside electrical outlet and run an extension cord across the street.

She calls the fire a wake up call and pleads for something to done about vacant properties, and the element they tend to attract, before something like this happens again.

“Really sad that something wasn’t done about the situation before it got this point," she said.

Investigators haven't released a cause for the fire or the names of the victims.