Family Helps Evacuate Condo Residents During Fire in SW OKC

 A group of neighbors are thankful to a local family, who just happened to be at the right place at the right time when a fire broke out in SW Oklahoma City. It happened on Christmas Eve at a strip of condos along SW 15th Street near Yukon.

“It was unbelievable,” said Tosha Smith who lives in SW OKC. “I’ve never been next to a structure fire before; it was pretty crazy.”

Smith says her family drove up to the fire after her 12-year-old son noticed smoke. She said they turned the corner and saw a condo engulfed in flames.

 “I told them to stay in the car and I got out and went and knocked on the doors,” she said.

The Hansen’s door was one of them.

“The door started banging really hard and ringing the doorbell,” Tom Hansen recalls.

He and his wife Debbie had no idea what was burning three doors down.

“The fire was moving so quickly with the wind it would have been really bad,” Debbie Hansen said.

Tom Hansen said once he saw the flames, instinct took over.

“You just kind of go on autopilot and something kicks in,” he said.

Hansen said he went into the burning condo and helped an elderly woman get out.

“The flames were blowing away from her doorway and I felt pretty confident that I could get into the doorway,” he said.

The Oklahoma City Fire Department showed up soon after and put out the fire.

“It was a real conflux of the right people, right time,” Tom Hansen said.

And it all began with the stranger who came knocking.

“She saved so many lives that night,” said Debbie Hansen. “We think she's an angel. She’s our hero.”

“That's what people always say, ‘I don't know what I would do’ but I guess we just happen to be there at the right time, the right moment to help out and I’m glad we could,” Smith said.

“The community bonded together, and the neighbors all took in the people that were evacuated from the surrounding units,” Tom Hansen added. “It was the spirit of Christmas.”

According to the fire department, the landlord took care of everyone affected by the fire.