'My heart was pounding': rescuer recalls harrowing scene at Norman Wells house fire

Louisa Yukon says she and her loved ones would have died if it weren't for the brave and timely actions of her local "hero."

Yukon, her mother and a friend were sleeping Sunday morning when a fire started in her home on Franklin Avenue in Norman Wells, N.W.T. Emergency crews got a call at about 7:23 a.m., and they were on the scene within minutes and put the fire out, according to RCMP.

Yukon said the family made it out of the home by the time fire crews arrived.

"I barely remember being woken up," recalled Yukon, speaking to CBC through Facebook, citing her phone was lost in the fire.

"You couldn't see a thing. It was completely covered in smoke. I panicked and I wanted to grab some things but since we couldn't see anything — it was too late."

Yukon said that's when local resident Stephen Scott arrived. She said he woke them up and got the trio to safety.

"I felt dizzy when I got up and I think if he never came when he did, we would have perished," said Yukon.

Crawling on belly through black, toxic smoke

Scott, a local crane operator, was driving to work Sunday morning when he saw heat waves radiating in the distance.

"I noticed a heat plume to my left... I thought it was odd," Scott told CBC. "It just didn't seem right with me so I detoured."

That's when he saw Yukon's house on fire, and no one in the streets.

Scott said he happened to be familiar with the home's layout because his wife used to live there. He realized it was Evelyn Yukon's home — someone he's known for more than 20 years.

Scott said flames were inside the home but he didn't see them "because the smoke was too black, too toxic."

"The smoke was so thick I had to get down on my belly and knees and crawl under," said Scott. "My heart was pounding, adrenaline was pumping."

He said about a few steps into the smoke, he bumped into a man and brought him out to safety. Scott went back in.

"I was calling out and I heard Evelyn answer back … Under the smoke I could see her ankles and legs," said Scott.

After he got her to safety, Scott said she told him her daughter was still inside.

"So I got down on my belly and knees again, climbed back in under smoke," said Scott, who heard Louisa in the kitchen area. "I seen her ankle and legs, and I called toward her. I stood up, grabbed her, escorted her out the door."

During the rescue, Scott said he told a bystander to call the fire station. The fire was put out and Yukon's home was completely excavated later Sunday morning.

"We lost everything," said Yukon. A family friend helped set up a GoFundMe for the family Monday. Yukon said her chest and lungs were still sore, but happy to be alive.

'He is a hero'

"I still get emotional when I think back on it," said the 50-year-old Scott. "I think about my children and my family."

"He is a hero because he put himself in the line of danger with no special equipment," said Yukon. "He was really brave to enter a burning house to save me and my family."

Scott said he's been a northerner for 30 years, and it's not the first time he saved someone's life.

But he doesn't want to be called a hero.

"I think of heroes as people who fight cancer, or adopt a child, doctors, nurses, police, firefighters," said Scott.

"I just hope that someone would do the same if it were me in that situation."