Aberdeen South apartments fire
Lawrence Douglas County Fire Medical crews responded to a fire call at Aberdeen South apartments, 4700 W. 27th Street, shortly before 6 a.m. Thursday.
Phil and Alex Victor were dropping off copies of the Lawrence Journal-World to subscribers on their regular route in the Aberdeen South apartment complex Thursday morning when Alex noticed that something wasn’t right.
“I saw smoke coming off the corner of the building,” said Alex, who delivers papers with his father. “I got a little closer to just see what was going on. I could see little flickers of either sparks or fire.”
That prompted Phil, who has been delivering papers for about a year, to call emergency dispatchers to report a fire in the apartment complex.
The father and son then did what they both thought was the next logical step. They started waking people up.
“They were startled to have somebody ringing their doorbell at quarter to six in the morning,” Phil said. “At the time, (the fire) wasn’t very big, but it spread very quickly.”
The two knocked on the doors of all eight apartments and residents were able to get out of the building unharmed, thanks to the Victors’ quick action.
“I didn’t stop and think about anything,” Alex said. “(We) just did what feels like should be done.”
Resident Kim Springer called the men “good Samaritans.”
“He was going around ringing everybody’s (doorbell) trying to get them out,” Springer said. “Everybody got out.”
While Phil and Alex were waking residents, their delivery route was still on the back of their minds.
“We’re supposed to have the papers delivered by six,” Phil said. “(We) let them know we were going to be late.”
After taking time out of their regular morning routine, the Victors got back to business.
“Once the help was there,” Phil said, “we went ahead and finished the paper route.”
Comments
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Eride (anonymous) says…
Bravo!
Cartemus (anonymous) says…
nice work, guys
honeychild (Mel Briscoe) says…
yay! :)
3girls (anonymous) says…
So shines a good deed in a weary world!
Willie Wonka
Gootsie (anonymous) says…
awesome job gentlemen!
Sigmund (anonymous) says…
Awesome and thanks!
mommydaycare (anonymous) says…
what a great story and great job to those men!!!
bigdave (anonymous) says…
Way to go!!!!!
blue73harley (anonymous) says…
Wow! Good news!
merrill (anonymous) says…
YES! What a team!
consumer1 (anonymous) says…
Very nice, local hero's, Good job.
shleppy (anonymous) says…
forget broadband man these guys need capes.
youngjayhawk (anonymous) says…
Warms the heart ... father - son team!
flux (anonymous) says…
You Rock!!
consumer1 (anonymous) says…
Key to the CIty. for these guys. what a great role model this Father has been to his son. In spite of danger to themselves, these two went into a life threatening situation to save the lives of other.
I applaud them and hope the City of Lawrence does it's part in recognizing their unselfish act.
The kids in that apartment complex could have been any of our children.
Con1
bondmen (anonymous) says…
Now because of their successfully observant actions J-W can advertise 'receiving our paper can save your life' or 'getting J-W is a matter of life and death.'
DaniB (Danielle Brunin) says…
"He who saves one life, saves the world entire."
Thank you for potentially saving my brother and his girlfriend's life. I won't forget!!!
redmoonrising (anonymous) says…
Wonderful! Nice to see a story about someone doing something good for others. Nicer to see that we appreciate it and them. Good job guys!
ralphralph (anonymous) says…
Phil and Alex for the Nobel!
consumer1 (anonymous) says…
I Suggest everyone emailing or calling Dave Corlis City manager and asking him to take action on Lawrence's own citizen hero's. Awarding them the recognition they deserve.
Satirical (anonymous) says…
Inspiring bravery!
riverat (Joe Hyde) says…
The Victors really did something special here.
Firefighters would know the answer to this question: If an apartment fire originates in the roof (causing it to burn downward into the structure) could a typical ceiling-mounted smoke detector pick up the presence of fire particulates in the air before the roof and ceiling collapse in flames onto the sleeping second floor occupants? I'm guessing that ceiling detectors would not have saved those people.
The Victors saved them, that's what I think.
throwdown_wallet (anonymous) says…
You two are heros. Thank you for being the type of people who, in a moment of crisis, chose to help others.
kong (Andrew Kong) says…
Love the sweatshirt!
mjwgoku (anonymous) says…
Well done guys!
wagonburner23 (anonymous) says…
What an unbelievable sweater. I need one of those today. Job well done guys.
supernik (anonymous) says…
KUDOS to the Victor's - its always great to read good news!!!
kusp8 (anonymous) says…
Way to go!! Now if only we can get them to hang out with captain Shullennerger (hero on the Hudson) the world would be perfect. Haha.
TheSychophant (anonymous) says…
Its a sad day when we hail as heros people who do something that I what excpect any decent human being to do. the question, thus, is this: if these guys are heros, are we losing our decency as a culture?
123smilie (anonymous) says…
good job lex! see, i TOLD you you weren't worthless! ^^