Tulsa Police Officers Rescue Homeowners From House Fire

The family of an elderly woman carried from a burning home says she may not make it. Three Tulsa police officers pulled the woman out Monday morning.

The first one who ran in wondered if he could have done more.

Officer Shawn Kite was laid off from the Tulsa police department in 2009. When he got his job back -- he had to take the overnight shift and happened to be patrolling near 31st and Mingo early Monday morning.

Usually firefighters are the ones running into burning buildings, not police officers.

"Before even pulling up to the front of the house, I could see flames," Kite said.

Officer Shawn Kite ran into the burning house. He says he found a woman dragging her 81-year-old mother, who can't walk on her own, across the living room to the front door.

"Obviously somewhat frantic. She was yelling, ‘I can't get her out. Help,'" Kite said.

Kite says he tried to pick up the mother, but she was hurting too badly. That's when Officers Greg Anderson and Brian Hewitt arrived and all of them carried the elderly woman outside.

"Thank God that I was in the right place at the right time," Kite said.

"Everybody there needs a pat on the back - the homeowner did a good job and TPD did a good job," said District Fire Chief Jim Long, Tulsa Fire Department.

The fire department says the fire started in a wood pile beside the home. It spread to the attic and into the living room. Firefighters don't know what caused the wood pile to catch fire.

"Fire is not necessarily strength, but when there is a need, I think any Tulsa Police officer and most human beings would do everything they could," said Tulsa Police Officer Shawn Kite.

The woman's family said she was released from the hospital, but she is not expected to live because she breathed in so much smoke.