Tahlequah Man Saves Children From Burning Home, Credits 'Dad Mode'

Despite losing everything they own in a house fire, one young couple is thankful they all made it out safely, including three children - six and under.

Investigators said a heat lamp to warm the family's dogs started the fire.

Kim and Patrick Perry had hoped to celebrate the New Year in style, now they're celebrating just being alive.

"It was just really, really, really, really overwhelming thinking one of them may not have made it out," Kim said.

The fire at their Tahlequah house destroyed just about all of their worldly possessions, but they still have what matters most, each other.

"We keep telling ourselves, as long as they're safe, then that's fine. It's all material, other than that," Patrick said.

Their three children and Kim's mother made it out safely; so did Patrick, a member of the Oklahoma National Guard.

"I don't think it was National Guard training, I think it was dad training. I mean it was dad mode," he said.

Kim wasn't home when the fire started.

When Patrick discovered the fire, he had less than a minute to react and to outrace the rapidly spreading flames.

"All I could think about was the kids. I got them out pretty quick, within 60 seconds," he said.

Patrick did the right thing by immediately getting his mother in law, and children, ages 6, 3, and 2 out of the home.

They want others to learn that important lifesaving lesson, plus the importance of having an escape plan ahead of time.

"It's really good to think about having a plan because you never think of this happening to you, until it does," Kim Perry said.

The couple is overwhelmed by the support they're getting from people in and around Tahlequah.

Days away from Thanksgiving, despite what they've lost, they're thankful for the young lives they didn't lose.

"Knowing that I could have lost one of them, there's no words," Kim said.

Another piece of advice from the Perry's is to make sure you have renters insurance. They didn't, but now wish they would have bought it.