Fox Ridge Apartments fire is 'last straw' for some residents
Thomas Irons, 37, sits with his four-month old daughter Tamia Irons, in the cafeteria of Hillside Middle School in Kalamazoo, where the Red Cross have set up disaster relief for the residents at Fox Ridge Apartments. Kayonnia Parker, 2 is on the left.KALAMAZOO -- Ricardo Anderson had one thing on his mind Wednesday -- a fresh start.
"We're done. We were already talking about leaving," the 30-year-old, hours after being burned out of his apartment, said of plans to move his family to Rockford, Ill., to be closer to relatives.
In November, raw sewage leaked into the lower level of the residence at Fox Ridge Apartments that Anderson shared with his two children and fiancee. On Wednesday, hours after watching a fire heavily damage his apartment building in the complex at 1509 Alamo Hills Drive, he was ready to pull up stakes.
"This is like the straw that broke the camel's back," Anderson said.
No one was hurt, but 29 families were displaced, and 15 apartments in the 30-unit building had fire, smoke or water damaged from a blaze reported at 11:50 p.m. Tuesday.
Firefighters were able to bring the fire under control in about an hour and found a meth lab in the apartment in which it started, according to the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety. Lt. Scott Merlo said late Wednesday that police were still trying to determine who lived in that apartment and to interview them.
Meanwhile, the Greater Kalamazoo Area Chapter of the American Red Cross on Wednesday set up a shelter and assistance center at Hillside Middle School on Alamo Avenue. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had helped 23 families with immediate needs ranging from food and shelter to clothing and prescription medicines, Red Cross spokeswoman Vicki Eichstaedt said.
Alexis Robinson, 24, waits with her 5-year-old daughter Alayzhia Johnson in the cafeteria of Hillside Middle School in Kalamazoo, where the Red Cross have set up disaster relief for the residents at Fox Ridge Apartments. Both were displaced by the fire in Fox Ridge Apartments at Alamo Avenue, "We've lost everything," says Robinson, "The clothes I'm wearing is what I have.""With a long holiday weekend, we want to make as much progress as we can to have these folks settled," Eichstaedt said. She said about 30 people were expected to spend Wednesday night at the shelter.
Anderson and his family were among several who visited the Red Cross shelter Wednesday, some lounging on cots set up inside the middle school's gym.
Anderson said he was inside his apartment Tuesday night watching a movie and wearing headphones and didn't realize there was a fire until a neighbor rapped on his door. He and his family got out right away.
"We were out there with no shoes, nothing," he said.
Fox Ridge resident Thomas Irons said he and his girlfriend were alerted to the fire by debris falling from the roof and hitting the bedroom window of his apartment.
Irons said residents worked together to alert everyone inside the building to the quickly spreading fire. "The flames had just gone out of control," he said.
A group of onlookers gather as firefighters attempt to extinguish flames in the Fox Ridge apartment complex early Wednesday morning.Irons, who went to the Red Cross shelter with his girlfriend and their three young daughters, said the family was making plans to move back to their hometown of Battle Creek and "start fresh."
Like Anderson, Irons said, he and his family lived in a lower-level apartment at Fox Ridge and were displaced in November by the sewage leak.
Anderson said he and his family had gone to live with friends for several weeks after the sewage leak. "We were just getting back in," he said. "And now this."
The Kalamazoo Gazette was unable to reach management of Fox Ridge Apartments on Wednesday.
Police ask that anyone with information about Tuesday's fire call KDPS at (269) 337-8994 or contact Silent Observer at (269) 343-2100 or www.kalamazoosilentobserver.com.
Contact Rex Hall Jr. at rhall@kalamazoogazette.com or 388-7784.
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