STARKVILLE — Renita Jones was cooking dinner for her family when she heard the sirens.
She didn’t think much of it until about five minutes later when a police officer and a firefighter were knocking on the door to evacuate her family from the apartment.
“I can’t even describe what it looked like,” she said. “All I saw was smoke. … I see all the fire trucks putting lights up, and they’re getting on top of the building. It was a shock to me because I was just in the house minding my business.”
The fire destroyed four of the 20 units at the Roselawn Terrace apartment complex Dec. 19, Starkville Fire Marshal Mark McCurdy told the Dispatch on Thursday. But burnt electrical wiring required the residents of the other 16 units, including Jones and her 10-year-old daughter Rheagan Nichols, to also evacuate.
McCurdy said the fire was started accidentally by a pest control fogger that had been placed in a wall cavity, making it especially difficult to extinguish the fire.
“The fire was actually inside the wall cavity space, so it took the firefighters a long time,” he said. “They had to rip walls. They had to rip sheetrock. … They had to cut the roof off just to gain access to the fire.”
A rash of fires
The fire at Roselawn Terrace Apartments was one of several that displaced families just before Christmas, including two house fires over the weekend and another at a different four-unit apartment complex on Central Avenue on Christmas Eve. Kristen Campanella, Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency director, said there were no injuries in any of the fires, but 65 people had to find temporary lodging.
With just days before Christmas, Jones was admittedly upset she and her family likely wouldn’t be home for the holiday.
“Who doesn’t want to be at home waking up to your Christmas tree, smelling whatever is cooking and just being with your kids and your family?” she said. “Then I thought about it, and it could have been so much worse.”
Oktibbeha Starkville Emergency Response Volunteer Services quickly began looking for hotels where the residents could stay, Director Carol Moss Read told The Dispatch. Then the families were set up with comfort kits, gift cards to purchase any essentials they needed and stuffed animals for the kids, she said.
Support for the displaced families came quickly, Read said.
La Quinta Inn offered a discounted block of rooms, and the hotel staff made welcome bags for the families. By the third night after the fire, enough clothes had been donated by community members for the families to shop for what they needed. But there were still more needs to be met.
Starkville Community Foundation Executive Director Stacey Parvin, who also works with Lutheran Disaster Response, reached out to local churches and organizations to raise funds for longer hotel stays.
“Everybody said yes, and very quickly we had $6,000 to cover a week,” she said, though now that number is closer to $10,000. “I think that’s just what it means to be a community. You share in the good times and the tough times, and you do what you can to help out.”
EMA, OSERVS and SCF will continue to collect monetary and gift card donations through Jan. 3 to help the families get back on their feet. The money will go toward lodging while gift cards will help meet more immediate needs, Read said.
‘Everybody came together’
More than 75 donated Christmas gifts allowed first responders to give the families a holiday surprise, Campanella said. A convoy of police cars, ambulances and fire trucks drove by the hotel on Christmas morning, sounding sirens in greeting before handing out gifts with Santa.
For Jones, the kindness restored some normalcy to the holiday.
“I was thinking a couple gifts … but they literally walked in with not only gifts for the kids, but they brought us clothes and jackets,” she said. “It was like everything we needed, they already thought about it. … They took time out of their Christmas to come and make sure we were OK and had smiles on their faces.”
Campanella said the morning was a blessing for the first responders as well.
“Seeing the smiles on the children’s faces and tears in the parents’ eyes, make what we do all worth it,” she said. “We are lucky here in Oktibbeha County. We have good people that care about our community and their neighbors. That is what this season is all about.”
On Thursday, 10 of the apartments at Roselawn Terrace were cleared for residents to return home to after electrical work and an inspection was completed. Several residents are staying with friends or family now, and one family is still at the hotel, Read said.
Now back home in her apartment, Jones said her perspective has changed from when they were first evacuated.
“I was thinking that this was the worst thing that would happen to end the year, but … everybody came together and was helping and making sure we were fed and put up somewhere,” she said. “I have nothing to complain about. When I tell you we have been blessed this holiday season, I am so thankful.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
