Mother Grieves Loss Of 13-Month-Old Son To Tulsa Fire

A Tulsa mother speaks out for the first time about the apartment fire that killed her 13-month-old son. Brittany Tuttle spent 11 days in the hospital getting treated for the third-degree burns she got while she was trying to save her son's life. 

 "He was a mover. You couldn't hold him for too long. He liked to go," said Brittany Tuttle, a 24-year-old mother grieving the loss of her son.

"He was a happy baby; he had a good life," she said. "It just ended too soon."
 
Her 13-month-old son Jayce died in a fire at the Sand Dollar Apartments on August 25th. Lilly Thomas, 7, and 57-year-old Terry Hargraves were also killed.

"My son was my life," Brittany said. "That little boy was my everything."
 
Brittany said she was at Sand Dollar for two nights helping her best friend and her 7-year-old daughter move into their new apartment.  The second night is when the fire started. 

Brittany's best friend saw the flames first.

9/1/2017 Related Story: Grief Counselors Visit Tulsa Apartments After Deadly Fire
 
"I look around the corner, and the flames was already covered, the front door and the living room," Brittany said.  "At that point we knew we weren't getting out."
 
Brittany tells me both she and her friend grabbed the children and ran into the bathroom - the room farthest from the flames.
 
"They were both screaming," she said. "I felt helpless. I've never felt so helpless."
 
But it didn't take long for the flames and smoke to close in on them.
 
 "I was crying. Trying to breathe," said Brittany Tuttle, who lost her 13-month-old son in an apartment fire.
 
That is the last thing Brittany remembers - looking at her son.  She woke up two days later in the hospital with third-degree burns covering her legs. 
 
"They told me my son didn't make it," she said. "The ambulance driver and the firefighter who pulled us out said they worked as hard as they could and as fast as they could but there was nothing they could do."

Brittany and her friend both lost almost everything they had in the fire.

There is a GoFundMe account set up for them if you can help.