Grandmother grateful to police officers who helped saved family from burning home
Click here for updates on this story
PHOENIX (KPHO/KTVK) — Body-cam video shows a Phoenix police officer crashing through a side gate to save a family of six while their house burned down all around them.
It happened at a home off McDowell Road and 64th Avenue in Phoenix on Saturday.
Eighty-year-old Ruby Johnson Smith was asleep on a living room chair when the fire broke out around 7 p.m. last Saturday.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Smith. “I don’t know where it started from or how it started. You can see I’m shaking in my boots right now, but it’s really starting to register now,” said Smith.
Smith said her first concern was for her daughter and four grandchildren, who had been out back. She worried they’d be trapped. But those fears quickly went away when neighbors and a couple of Phoenix police officers jumped into action, lifting the kids over a backyard wall.
“I guess my daughter must have been yelling, ‘Fire. Fire!’ So he got back there and helped them over the fence,” said Smith. “I appreciate them so much. There’s a crown for them that God is going to crown them for the help they did for us.”
The officers had been checking out a call at an apartment complex across the street when they saw smoke and flames coming from the house.
Next door neighbor Josie Aragon was home when the fire broke out and saw the officers get Smith and her family to safety.
“Oh, thank God, that’s all I kept telling her,” said Aragon. “You know what, Ruby, you’re very lucky your kids are safe, and everybody is safe. Material things can be replaced.”
It is unclear what started the fire, but Smith and her family know if they didn’t get out when they did, this story could have had a much different outcome.
“I just can’t thank them enough,” said Smith. “So thankful for police officers, the fire department, Red Cross, and all the neighbors.”
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
