CALGARY -- Thankful for getting lost during a visit to White Rock, B.C., a Calgarian's wrong turn led him to rescuing an elderly lady from her burning home on the Thanksgiving long weekend.

Chris Yee, 34, visiting the city 45 km south of Vancouver, spent Saturday night walking by the ocean with his friend Andrea Fisk and her daughter.

When the trio headed away from the ocean, they couldn't remember where Yee had parked his car.

Turning down a street in search of the vehicle, the trio saw smoke billowing from a house and a panicked senior standing on the balcony about 8 p.m.

The woman, in her 80s, appeared to be frozen in fear and the group ran to help neighbours who were urging her to come down.

When the woman wouldn't walk down the balcony steps to safety alone, Yee and a neighbour climbed the stairs to the burning home to save her.

"By the time the neighbour and I helped the lady down from the stairs, the house was on fire," said Yee.

"Most people think she was in shock, that's why she didn't want to come down."

By the time fire crews arrived, the house was swallowed by flames.

"It was pretty intense," Yee said about the blaze.

The senior's home was gutted by the fire.

The Calgarian said he did what anyone else in the same situation would have done.

"I'm modest -- just glad we were there at the right time," he said.

"It feels good to have helped someone who was in danger."

The senior's adult son also lived in the home but he was at work at the time of the fire.

Although his mother doesn't have home insurance, Donald McInnes said he's thankful his greatest treasure survived.

"They're just possessions but I've really got to thank those people," he told CTV about her rescuers.

"She's the most important possession and that's all that really matters."

Fire investigators are working to determine the cause of the blaze.

TARINA.WHITE@SUNMEDIA.CA