OKC Family Grateful for Firefighters Who Rescued Mom From Burning Home

An Oklahoma City family said they hope to meet the firefighters who rescued their mother from a burning home.

Tia Self spent nearly a month in the hospital because of burns suffered during that house fire on Dec. 27 on Northwest 82nd Street. She was released from the hospital last week after getting several skin grafts across her body.

Tia and her husband, Bobby, were sleeping when the fire erupted. Their 16-year-old daughter, Rylee, was about to go to bed when she heard the fire alarm. 

Rylee said she saw flames coming from a mattress in another room, so she woke up her parents. 

Rylee said she and her father then tried to put the fire out by using bowls of water and the shower head. But the smoke became overwhelming.

Rylee said after getting a wet rag to breathe through, she went to the garage and helped her grandmother out. Rylee said she then used her grandma's phone to call 911.

Meanwhile, Bobby said Tia opened the master bedroom window and threw their cat out. But Tia was trapped due to the flames and smoke. Bobby said he and a neighbor tried to pull Tia out the bedroom window, but the smoke and heat were too much.

"I heard my dad calling for me, like, 'Rylee, help! I have her. I can't get her out,’" Rylee recalled.

Bobby suffered some burns to his hand while trying to save Tia.

"My wife dropped down out of my arm that I had on one side," Bobby said. "I thought I had lost her because the heat was so intense."

That was when the Oklahoma City Fire Department arrived.

"I located the bed, searched the top of the bed, no victim. Searched beside the bed, underneath the bed is where I found her hand," Austin Blake, a firefighter, said in a YouTube video posted by the fire department.

Firefighters then carried Tia through the bedroom window into the hands of other firefighters, the fire department said. 

"Oh man, that was the biggest relief. Right now, I'm trying to keep from crying," Bobby said.

Both Tia and Bobby were treated on scene for smoke inhalation and second-degree burns before being taken to the hospital.

After four weeks in the hospital, Tia returned home on Jan. 25. Her family said once she feels better, they hope to meet Blake and the other firefighters who saved her.

"Just so thankful," Morgan Self, Rylee's older sister, said. "We could have spent New Year's, this New Year without my mom. Like, it could have been a very tragic way to enter into 2023."

"The gratitude. I mean, we don't have words sometimes," Morgan added.

The family said they were thankful for The Gate Church for providing food and other assistance. They hope to eventually repair their heavily-damaged home. 

Anyone wishing to help the family can send funds to Bobby's Cash App account, $bobbyself1.

The fire department said one firefighter suffered some minor burns on the left hand. Investigators determined the cause was electrical in nature.