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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsFour Teenage Boys Rushed to Burning Home to Save 90-Year-old Neighbor Trapped Inside
A 90-year-old woman is alive and well thanks to a group of teenage boys who came to her rescue one evening when her house suddenly caught fire. Catherine Richie had been in the bathroom of her Sapulpa, Oklahoma home last month when she turned around and saw that her bed had somehow become engulfed in flames.
Richie spent some time trying to extinguish the flames before she eventually gave up, called 911, and pressed her emergency call button. When she tried to evacuate the house, however, she found that she could barely make her way through the smoke.
Meanwhile, four boys ranging in age from 14 to 17 years old were leaving the neighbors house so they could get something to drink from the nearby convenience store. When they smelled smoke coming from Richies house, they immediately jumped into action.
As one of the boys attempted to get help from the other neighbors, the other three youngsters attempted to break into the house from various entrance points. 14-year-old Seth Byrd eventually managed to get in through the back door, and upon finding Richie lost in her smoky hallway, Seth picked her up and carried her outside.
One of Richies ten children, Missy Ritchie Nicholas, later wrote a blog post to praise the young men for taking action.
Kids who are told about all the things they arent old enough to do saved the life of the most precious and beloved woman we know, wrote Nicholas. Young men who risked their own lives, their own safety, perhaps their good standing with their parents who might have chosen for them to do otherwise, and they carried my mother out of her burning home into the street, where firetrucks and ambulances would soon arrive.
Thank you for your selfless acts of heroism and courage, she added. Thank you for not allowing this to be the tragic end to our mothers amazing life. Thank you for staying with her, hugging her, and helping her feel less alone until we could get to her. Thank you for being the kind of young men who thought about another person above yourselves.
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/oklahoma-teens-rescue-elderly-neighbor-from-burning-home/
CurtEastPoint
(18,638 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,100 posts)love to hear about. Sometimes while reading DU stories about some evil going on, I get cynical of the stories about people just acting hateful, freaky, or just in a mindset that no one normally has.
Thank goodness we have good people like these kids and those in DU land...at least I can read normal and good stuff.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Everyone should be so brave and generous.
Good on ya! You rock!
sheshe2
(83,721 posts)You are making me cry.
Good job guys, good job.
Rhiannon12866
(205,114 posts)sheshe2
(83,721 posts)Laffy Kat
(16,376 posts)The boys look a little bewildered by the attention. Hope good things come their way.
demigoddess
(6,640 posts)Rhiannon12866
(205,114 posts)KT2000
(20,572 posts)thanks to these fine young men.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Restores my faith in the youth of this country. Especially young men.