There was nothing particularly significant about Kathy Moore’s early morning commute to Centerpoint Medical Center Nov. 11.
A clinical manager at the hospital, Moore was driving along Jackson Drive at around 5 a.m. when she saw white smoke in the distance.
“The closer I got... I saw the flames, then,” Moore said, referring to what might have been a tragedy for 42 people inside one of the Independence Ridge Apartment buildings.
“When I pulled up, I didn’t see any lights, no fire trucks, anything like that. No one was there.”
But Moore was there, leaping out of her car and, in spite of bad knees, running up and pounding on doors on all three floors.
“I don’t know how many I knocked on,” she said. “I just kept thinking that I gotta start waking people.”
As she pounded on doors, she held her phone, calling 911. When she heard sirens, she stashed the phone away and continued on.
At one point, somewhere on the third floor landing, she was close enough to see flames. She kept on.
“Some of the people on the top floor didn’t even realize what was going on,” she said.
It was a massive fire caused by an electrical problem in a wall cavity. In the end, 42 people were displaced – but they survived.
“I kept thinking that I wasn’t going to let anyone die in that fire,” she said, pausing.
In 2003, Moore lost her nephew, Tom Martin, 29, and great-nephew, Spencer Martin, 3, in a house fire in Independence. It was at night, she said. Tom’s wife and 5-month-old baby got out.
“I don’t think anyone in our family has gotten over it,” she said.
Her mother, Jean Ragan, agreed.
“No, no one has gotten over it. I don’t think anyone could.”
News that her daughter took action didn’t surprise Ragan.
“That’s the kind of person she is,” she said.
Alerting people, Moore than went down to the ground floor and guided people away from the flames. She moved one woman’s car because she was too distraught, discovering later that the woman worked at Centerpoint, too.
“I’d put my coat around her and my name tag was on it,” Moore said. “She was surprised, said she worked there, too.”
Moore was even more surprised to discover that some residents purchased flowers for her and sent them to her office. There have been cards, too. Others have called. Some have stopped by.
“I’m befuddled by all the attention,” she said. “I didn’t do anything but knock on some doors.”
Her mother illustrates her daughter’s will to act with one story.
“One woman showed (Kathy) her baby and told her, ‘This is what you saved,’” she said. “She just broke down and cried.”
