KC man saves child, grandmother from house fire

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    KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) — There is not much left of the house located at the corner of 45th and Virginia. The fire that destroyed the house also jumped to the house next door where a woman in a wheelchair and her 4-year-old grandson had no idea their house was on fire. Lucky for them, they have a neighbor that took the time to care.

When Aaron Hoeppner spotted the intense flames the day after Christmas, he knew the house was vacant because he himself lives right down the street. But as he drove toward his house, he noticed the flames were spreading to the house next door.

“I just had a, I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. Just an instinct or gut feeling and thought, I gotta pull over and check,” Aaron Hoeppner who saved a family from a fire, said.

The first thing he heard after knocking was a dog barking. He says he was ready to break the door down to rescue him when it opened.

“She opened the door, the grandma did, and she was in a wheelchair and I said, ‘hey, your house is on fire, you’ve got to get out’,” Hoeppner said.

As Hoeppner explained what was happening, he says he saw a 4-year-old little boy peek from around the corner.

“I saw him and thought, ok, I’ve got to go. So, I push the door open and I grabbed the little boy and I said, ‘he’s coming with me,’ and she said ‘ok’,” Hoeppner said. “When I saw a little boy, I felt it in my stomach or in my heart I don’t know how to explain it, I think if you don’t you should probably check to see if you have a heart.”

Hoeppner then put the boy into his truck.

“Two things he said to me were, ‘I’m cold’, so I gave him my coat to wear and then he said, ‘I hope my Christmas presents don’t burn’,” Hoeppner said.

Firefighters arrived just as Hoeppner went back to get the boy’s grandmother and helped pull her to safety. Hoeppner says it’s not lost on him that he was in the right place at the right time the day after Christmas.

“I think that as people, the human condition it’s incredibly fragile and so I think that one of the things that’s important is that as people will look out for other people and I think it’s fitting that was the day after Christmas at a time when we all come together and are grateful for the time in the lives that we have and I think it’s pretty obvious to me the good lord was looking out for them that day,” Hoeppner said.

There’s still no word on what started the fire but despite how bad it looked and the fact it jumped to the house next door, no one was hurt.

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