Brattleboro fire victims are allowed to check what they left behind
By Casey Farrar Sentinel Staff
Published April 21, 2011
BRATTLEBORO — When the fire alarm sounded Sunday night, Shawnna M. O’Connor headed for the street.
Thinking the alarm would last just long enough for firefighters to discover burnt food in one of the 59 units of the Brooks House, she left her 7-year-old cat, Juniper, inside her fourth-floor apartment.
“I knew where she was, but I didn’t think it was that big of a fire,” O’Connor said Wednesday. “About six months ago there was an alarm but it wasn’t a big fire.”
But as she reached the street and stepped into the Harmony parking lot to see flames shooting from the back of the building, she realized it wasn’t so minor.
Fire officials say a staple that pierced a wire in the third-floor ceiling sparked the electrical fire that could have been smoldering for more than a day before flames destroyed much of the fourth floor and a fifth-floor penthouse.
In the three days since O’Connor and an estimated 59 other residents have been homeless, she called local veterinarians and the humane society, hoping Juniper escaped and was turned in.
But there was no sign of Juniper.
“I was convinced that she had smoke inhalation,” O’Connor said. “I couldn’t see how she could survive that.”
On Wednesday afternoon, O’Connor was among the residents who were allowed into their apartments for a first glimpse of the damage. Owners of at least seven ground- and basement-level businesses had been allowed into their establishments a day before.
A firefighter with a flashlight and a friend of O’Connor’s searched for the cat, while she walked around the apartment gathering some essentials.
When her friend pointed the light under a bookshelf and spotted Juniper’s shining yellow eyes peering back at him, O’Connor said at first she couldn’t believe her pet had survived.
O’Connor realized the cowering gray cat was alive when they moved the furniture. “She was hiding,” O’Connor said. “She was afraid to come out.”
O’Connor carried Juniper out of the building in a brown plastic pet carrier and was headed to get her checked out by a veterinarian Wednesday afternoon.
“After that, the other stuff inside just didn’t seem important,” O’Connor said.
Getting a first look at their homes
Wednesday was an emotional day for many of the residents as they surveyed the damage from the fire, smoke and massive amount of water used to douse the flames.
Town officials estimate the more than 20 fire crews from communities in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont used about 1.8 million gallons during the nine hours they battled the five-alarm blaze.
For about three hours Wednesday afternoon the residents rotated into the building in groups, accompanied by firefighters.
Parts of Main and High streets that had been closed since the fire reopened to vehicle traffic shortly before 5 p.m.
Workers from Renaud Brothers of Vernon, Vt., continued dismantling much of the badly burned fifth-floor penthouse, piling the charred rubble in a closed section of the Harmony parking lot. The sidewalk running next to the Brooks House will also remain closed to pedestrian traffic.
After visiting their fourth-floor apartment, Juan Jr. Ramirez and Jessica Salgado sat in a hallway outside the High Street Painters studio in the Midtown Mall sorting through a duffel bag stuffed with belongings they’d retrieved.
Ramirez is a painter and the couple came to Brattleboro from Chicago two months ago on an artist’s grant. After the fire, Brattleboro’s artist community rallied around them, providing them a place to stay Sunday night, Ramirez said.
Ramirez, who turned 24 on Tuesday, described the hallway leading to their apartment as “hellish.”
Charred wood and other debris crunched underfoot and the walls were covered in black soot. The two kitchen windows in the apartment had been broken out to allow firefighters to climb inside, he said.
Once in the apartment, the first thing Ramirez set out to find was a painting he’d been working on of his niece. He’d been having trouble getting the painting just right and had gotten back to work on it shortly before the fire, Ramirez said.
He found it in the kitchen, under chunks of collapsed ceiling.
The rich orange background was speckled with ash and black smudges and the canvas beneath was damaged by water, Ramirez said. Although he doesn’t think he’ll be able to salvage the painting, Ramirez said he plans to hang onto it.
“It’s more about the memories,” he said.
Salgado also found a treasured memory — a picture of her sister and brothers — and a flash drive containing family photos.
“Everything else doesn’t matter,” she said. “It can all be replaced.”
Finding closure, starting over
For Alfred A. Hughes Jr., who lived in a third-floor apartment that faced the Main and High streets intersection, seeing his apartment brought some closure, he said.
Hughes wore a bright turquoise mask adorned with gold trim as he sat on a bench across the street from his apartment with a few things he’d salvaged from inside.
The mask was a gift from a friend the day after the fire, he said.
“I wore it because it’s a part of who I am,” he said. “I wear all these fabulous things and they’re all destroyed, so this is starting over.”
Hughes, who said he has an extensive collection of dresses, ball gowns and jewelry in his apartment, took mostly basic essentials during his visit. He also took a large self-portrait that was undamaged.
“When I walked in the door, the first thing I saw was this bright feather boa,” he said. “I reached down to pick it up and then went, ‘No, no, not now.’
“I’d see a ball gown or a dress and reach down and then say, ‘No, no, I’ll get it later.’ ”
Hughes will be getting more things from his apartment Friday, but said he may have to leave most large items inside.
“It was very hard when they said we may never see the things again,” he said. “At first I (was shocked) and then I was like, ‘You know, I’ve had great memories and things will be okay.’
“I’ll get a couple new dresses and start to move on.”
As Hughes waited for a ride, passers-by stopped for handshakes and hugs, asking how he was doing and offering support.
“Everyone’s been great,” he said. “I’ve heard from so many people who just want to make sure I’m okay.”
Residents will be allowed to go back into their apartments by appointment today and Friday to collect the rest of their belongings, town officials said.
Casey Farrar Caster 