The girlfriend of a man who died in a house fire on Friday is speaking out, saying she wouldn't be alive if it weren't for him.
"He saved my life. If it wasn't for Ole Hanson, I wouldn't be standing here telling this story today," said Cassandra Lamoreux, 22.
Ole Hanson, 63, died when flames ripped through his two-storey home on Cavan Street in west Ottawa on Good Friday.
Firefighters were called to the scene Friday morning when a passerby saw smoke coming from the house. The fire woke the couple up, and they tried to escape.
"I turned around and I said, ‘Ole, I'm going to jump, promise me you'll be behind me,'" Lamoreux told CTV Ottawa on Sunday.
"He must've pushed me out because I was too afraid. I was so fearful to jump; it was like a 50-foot drop."
Lamoreux injured her ankle when she leapt from a second-storey window. Hanson never made it out. He was found without vital signs on the second floor
Lamoreux says she is heartbroken. It wasn't the first time Hanson saved her life. He had rescued her from the streets and stood by her when nobody else would.
"He's been there when I lost my child. He's been there when I had no connection with my family. He was a man that --- something that I've never had," said Lamoreux.
A memorial for Hanson will be held at Hulse, Playfair and McGarry on McLeod Street at 1 p.m. Friday.
An investigation into the cause of the fire is still ongoing.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Stefan Keyes
