Family Displaced After Mayes County House Fire

A family is without a home after their rural Mayes County house caught fire.

A neighbor says the fire department couldn't get there in time to save it.

Teri Midgett says the second she realized her neighbor's house was on fire, she called 911. But she says living in such a rural part of the state, it took them about half an hour to get here."

What's left of Josh Hopper's house is still smoldering more than 24 hours later.

"It took quite a while to put it out,” Midgett recalled.

Midgett says she was on her way home when she noticed something burning.

"I turned down the dirt road to come to the houses, and I thought they were burning brush,” she said. “About halfway down the road, I realized it was really black smoke."

She says she immediately parked and found Hopper, who'd had to jump out of a bedroom window. The next thing she did was call 911.

"By the time they got here, it was completely, you know, in flames,” said Midgett. “"It was almost gone by the time they got here."

Hopper says the home is a “total loss.”