Donations Continue for Survivors of St. John Fire

More than a week after a fire destroyed a nine-unit apartment building in Estate Grunwald, St. John, firefighters are monitoring the site, which continues to smolder.

“We’ve been on the scene every day,” said Clarence Stephenson, deputy fire chief for St. John. “It’s just a pile of rubble now, but underneath, it’s still very hot, like a coal pit,” he said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, he said.

No one was seriously injured in the blaze, which spread quickly through the three-story wooden structure on Sunday, March 20, around 10 p.m. Dana Heuschkel, who survived the fire with her partner Tadis Pierre, said most of the residents were at work and out of the building at the time.

“I smelled smoke, woke Tadis up, and I saw flames over the balcony,” Heuschkel said. The two ran in and out of their apartment, salvaging what they could – “purse, laptop, phones and a handful of clothes. It was less than five minutes until Tadis was yelling for us to leave,” she said.

Heuschkel lost her cat. She is now staying in a small trailer with four other cats rescued from the fire, “and Tadis has been Jeep/couch/bed/hotel surfing since,” she said.

Two firefighters were treated at Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center — one for smoke inhalation and another for an injury — but both are back on the job, Stephenson said.

None of the residents were injured during the fire, but 16 individuals, including two children, are now seeking permanent housing in an extremely scarce market.