Men Help Save Elderly Woman From Burning Home in Fenton

Two workers from Atlas Outdoor went above and beyond their usual job duties when they potentially saved an elderly woman's life Thursday afternoon.

Kyle Beckelic and Brandon Uhrig helped the woman escape from her home as the home of her connected neighbor at 865 Whisperwood Trail burned around 3:30 p.m.

The two men were mowing the lawn on one of the many Whisperwood homes they service when they saw smoke down the road. They called 911 and ran to the homes that are attached as a duplex. Carmen Lillis answered the door, while no one was at the one next door, where the fire began.

“I was sitting crocheting and watching TV,” Lillis said. “It was a nuisance because I had an oxygen tank in front of the door. Thank God I had these guys to help me.”

Uhrig helped Lillis out of the home with the help of a neighbor, while Beckelic sprayed the house with a hose to try and put out the fire.

“She didn’t want to come out at first,” Uhrig said. “She said ‘who are you?’ When we told her there was a fire she said, ‘are you sure?’”

They convinced her to leave the home, removed her oxygen tanks from the residence and shut off the power to the building.

“We thought it was a smoke bomb at first,” Uhrig said of the fire. “Then in a matter of 30 seconds there was smoke everywhere and we were running over there.”

Chief Robert Cairnduff said firefighters are unsure on how the blaze began, but it was mostly contained to the unoccupied left side of the duplex and put out within 10 minutes when firefighters arrived just after 3:30 p.m.

“The smoke was coming out terribly,” said neighbor Virginia Corner.

Lillis, who has lived in the home for nearly 24 years and has seen a couple fires in the subdivision, said she was feeling fine after the incident and rested comfortably at a neighbor’s home. She was eager to give Uhrig a hug, however and told him, "if you are late with your work, tell your boss it's my fault."