Man says he ran into burning Forest Park home to rescue woman, kids

FOREST PARK, Ohio (WXIX) - A family of three lost their home, but not their lives, thanks to a man who says he jumped into the burning building to rescue them.

Dantay Hudson says he was home when an explosion shook his house around 6 p.m. Thursday.

“I heard a boom, I came outside and seen everybody looking up the street, and I seen smoke and ran across the street,” Hudson recalls.

The smoke was coming from a home at the end of Riga Court, Hamilton County Dispatch said Thursday.

He ran to the scene, and as he talked with other neighbors, Hudson says he found out a great-grandmother and her great-grandchildren were still in the home.

“I seen the screen door open and seen the opportunity to break it open and kick in part of the front door and was able to get them out,” Hudson explains.

After helping rescue the family, neighbors say the fire fully engulfed the house, and smoke could be seen from blocks away.

The fire spread so wide it burned the side of the two houses next door.

One neighbor said Thursday it “felt like a bomb” went off.

“I thought I was about to die,” said Ramiah Taylor. “I was praying to God that there was nothing wrong, and then I came up here, and I see this, and I’m like, ‘Lord, please help these people’ because you’d never expect to see this in the neighborhood.”

The Forest Park Fire Department says they think the home where the fire started is a complete loss.

Hudson says he doesn’t consider himself a hero; he was just doing the right thing.

Nine fire departments responded: Forest Park, Springfield Township, Springdale, North College Hill, Colerain Township, Fairfield, Green Hills, Sharonville, West Chester.

The fire department is still investigating the cause of the fire but did say no one was injured.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2023 WXIX. All rights reserved.