Neighbor saves great-grandmother, 2 children from large Forest Park house fire

FOREST PARK, Ohio — A neighbor saved a great-grandmother and her two great-grandchildren from a large Forest Park house fire Thursday evening, Fire Chief Alfie Jones said.

Multiple fire units responded to the house fire along Riga Court around 6:30 p.m.

Jones said there were three residents — a great-grandmother and her two great-grandchildren — in the home, but a neighbor saved them causing no one to be injured.

D’Anta Hudson, the neighbor responsible, said he was surprised to be able to get them out.

"Very much surprised," he said. "As soon as we got them out, it just took over. The fire just took over everything."

Hudson, who doesn't personally know the family inside, doesn't consider himself a hero in any sense.

"I wouldn't," Hudson said. "I'm just a person who was doing the right thing at the right moment. I would want somebody to do it for me."

Jones said the house was completely destroyed in the massive fire, and it also spread to two adjacent homes. It's unclear how much damage those residences sustained.

The large fire caused tall smoke plumes to be visible right off of I-275 on Hamilton Avenue.

It's unclear what caused the fire, but Jones suspects it was a gas explosion, though that's still under investigation.

The great-grandmother who lived in the house said she had a brand new water heater installed less than an hour before the fire broke out.

After the fire was out, a water main break along the street caused flooding in a neighbor's home. A Duke Energy worker said it's unclear if the firefighters' hoses pulled too much pressure from battling the fire.

Duke Energy spokesperson Sally Thelen said techs with the company checked gas lines throughout the neighborhood and all were operating safely, with no leaks detected.

However, Thelen said the service line to the home exploded, although it had been working properly. She added nothing the investigation has revealed so far indicates Duke Energy is at fault in the fire; had there been any leaks Duke was responsible for, multiple homes in the neighborhood would have been impacted.