HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — One of the biggest fires in the city of Huntsville in recent memory spread quickly through dozens of apartments at the Fern Parc complex. Everyone got out ok, but in some cases, the fire took everything those families called their own, and left many without a home.
One of those affected was Shyanne Davis, a mother-to-be now contemplating where she and her family will go, She moved into her apartment in January. She says a couple of weeks ago, she and her boyfriend got an unpleasant wakeup call. "I woke up choking, and there was black smoke filling the whole entire apartment, which I was confused because I didn't hear any smoke alarms go off."
When Davis realized something was wrong, her first thought was to evacuate. "I woke my boyfriend up and he looked outside and there was a bunch of fire trucks and everything everywhere. So then we got our dogs and came down the stairs and that's when we saw fire everywhere. I didn't think it was going to touch our apartment. I just thought we're going to have smoke damage."
But instead, her apartment left completely destroyed. She was paired with the Red Cross for other living arrangements. She said they put her and her boyfriend in a hotel, but they only have a few days left there.
Finding a new place to live becomes the next step. The apartment complex gave her a couple of options after the incident. Davis explained, "They said we can either cancel our lease or they will move us to another apartment. We didn't feel safe to stay here. So we just canceled our lease and moved out."
Shyanne is currently 15 weeks pregnant and this experience has been a rollercoaster. In her words, "Moving quicker than I expected and losing everything that we had and just...it's just been everywhere."
But even when everything is moving in different directions, the support from the community helps keep spirits high. She says, "All the donations and everything and how people were offering a lot of things and helping us in many different ways. It was it was like crazy to see how it happened so fast."
Davis says they went to check on the upcoming baby's health after the fire and no issues were found.
Shyanne and her boyfriend have a GoFundMe posted to help with upcoming costs. Any donations toward affected residents can be sent to 3054 Leeman Ferry Road SW, Huntsville, AL, 35801.
According to Huntsville Fire & Rescue, the cause of the fire is still under investigation.