At 12:30 a.m. JeanPaul yelled “Fire”.  I knew it wasn’t in the house because he didn’t yell “Get out of the house”.  Was it the candle outside in the yard?  Was it the garage across the alley?

It was the large 5 family at the corner.  The whole 3rd floor was engulfed in flames.  Just when we got 911 on the line, the fire trucks rolled up.  We could feel the heat of the flames on our windows.  All the residents were outside in the cold.  The very cold – it was below zero and they were wearing whatever they had grabbed on their way out the door, some with blankets as covers, some in just their pajamas – like our elderly French neighbor who has lived in that building for 20 years.

We all came out of our homes and offered a warm place for them to wait out the fire.  A newlywed couple came to our house.  They were badly shaken as the young man had run up to the 3rd floor apartment but was unable to get past the smoke to save the person he could hear coughing.  It took most of the night for the firemen to conquer the fire.

As I write, the firemen are rolling up the hoses and packing up their tools.  The salt trucks have come down the alley a few times.  Our displaced neighbors are safe in their family’s homes although they are themselves homeless.  One person, the man on the 3rd floor who had moved in just a few months ago isn’t with his family, though.   Even though he wasn’t able to escape the flames last night we are all praying that our neighbor Charles was able to find his way to God.