KCTV 5Dog's owner thankful for her safe return after apartment fire

A late-night fire left an Olathe man with critical injuries. KCTV5 is learning more about the people involved with the fire and how one dog managed to survive.

Olathe fire investigators still haven't released a cause to Wednesday night's fire that critically injured a man. Neighbors are praying for his recovery, but said the fire could have been a lot worse for the entire building.

"Here comes a fire and I just rebuilt everything. I sure didn't want to lose everything again," said Annette Campbell as she recounted what was going through her mind Wednesday night.

Campbell heard the yelling, saw the fire, and smelled the smoke at her apartment complex near North Somerset Terrace and South Mur-Len Road.

Campbell escaped a flood four years ago with a few clothes and her dog, Sassy. The night of the fire, her 6-year-old blue healer, border collie mix was still inside the burning building.

"I snuck around back to open a window to get her out and they (police and fire crews) wouldn't let me do that. I said ‘if it was my child, could I go get her?' They said ‘yeah.' I said 'this is my child, she's my significant other, she is all I have,'" Campbell said.

Another resident shared what he saw before calling 911 Wednesday.

"When I came out of my apartment, I saw a whole bunch of smoke, just a whole bunch of smoke," Clark Romain said.

Romain said he saw his neighbor asking for help and, nearby, the woman's brother, Billy. He said he saw the brother, in his 50s, was burned from the fire in their top-floor apartment in a building with eight units

"I saw her brother half burnt. I went to my car and called 911 and they were here in a few minutes," Romain said.

The flames were contained to only one apartment, but there was smoke damage to the unit below.

Campbell was reunited with Sassy after the fire was knocked out.

"She was scared to death, she didn't even want to go in this morning, she was so scared," Campbell said of her dog.

The two both survived and Campbell said she's thankful the flames stayed away from their home.

The man burned in the fire was rushed off to an area burn center where he was last listed in critical condition.

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