Sophomore Pete Fleps emerged from spring workouts as the first-team SAM linebacker in SMU's new defense (photo by SMU athletics).

SMU guard Sean Lobo was among many Mustangs who showed up for a voluntary workout April 26 before any sane person was awake. Moments before the 6 a.m. session began, he smelled smoke.

Linebacker Pete Fleps had arrived in the weight room … and he stunk.

“We asked him why he smelled,” Lobo said. “He just looked at us and said ‘I saved a woman from a fire’ … like it was totally normal. We were giving Pete some grief, telling him he smelled like a bar, but that’s because he never really goes out, and he doesn’t smoke, anyway. But it didn’t smell like cigarettes — it smelled like something was on fire.”

As it turns out, that’s exactly what he smelled like. Fleps had gotten up to go work out with his teammates, leaving his off-campus apartment around 5:45 a.m.

“I stepped out of my apartment, and I heard what sounded like a smoke alarm,” Fleps said. “Then I smelled the faint smell of smoke. I walked downstairs, and the lights were on in the apartment across from me. I looked and saw that the place was filled with smoke, and figured the place was on fire.

“I knocked on the door and got no response, so I checked to see if the door was open, and it was unlocked. I walked in and found that the woman who lived there had left the stove on and had left something on it. I picked the pot up and took it to the balcony.”

At that point, Fleps said, he began yelling, to see if anyone was home.

“I was going around her apartment, and found her asleep in bed. I said ‘excuse me, Ma’am, it looks like there has been a fire in here.

“She woke up, but she was pretty dazed. I opened the windows to let some of the smoke out, and asked if she was OK.”

After determining that the woman — and her Chihuahua, who was “going berserk,” Fleps said — were OK, he left. He woke up some neighbors, asking them to check on the woman … and he still made it to the weight room on time.

Fleps admitted that he didn’t give a lot of thought to the options he faced when faced with the smoke-filled apartment.

“I don’t really know,” he said when asked what he would have done had the apartment actually been ablaze when he walked in. “At the time, I thought it was — I thought the place was on fire.”

“Mitch (Enright) and Lobo were the first two to notice, but everyone noticed pretty soon. The smell was in my clothes, my hair.”

Teammates lauded him for his effort, but Fleps also enjoyed some playful barbs for his heroism.

“We were impressed, but we also kept telling him things like ‘Pete! Only you can prevent forest fires!’” Lobo said. “Even (strength coach) Vic Viloria said things like ‘Fleps, take a break — you saved a life today.’”

After waking a sleeping neighbor in her smoke-filled apartment, Fleps still made it on time to work out (photo by Webmaster).

Of course, along with his bravery, Fleps also embraced an element of risk with his decision to enter his neighbor’s apartment.

“My family was surprised when I told them about it, but I think they were happy that I chose the course of action that I did,” he said. “It was a pretty big adrenaline rush, but I’m just glad no one was hurt, and that nothing too serious came out of it.”

But the 6-foot-2, 220-pound sophomore from Southlake, Texas, contends that had it not been safe to enter — if the smoke was too thick, or if the door was too hot — he wouldn’t have entered the apartment, and would have called 9-1-1, instead.

“I don’t want to make it out to be bigger than it was,” he said. “I wouldn’t have gone in there if I didn’t think it would be safe.”

While Fleps downplays his action, and enjoys the congratulations and playful barbs from his teammates and Viloria, Lobo said the teasing comes with a healthy dose of admiration.

“I would have called 9-1-1, and I think a lot of people would have done that, too,” Lobo said. “Pete going in there to check on that lady — that’s really not a huge surprise. It seems like something he’d do for someone, but there just aren’t many other people out there who would have done what he did.”