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‘We were literally trapped'
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Friday, July 6, 2007 10:45 AM EDT
Argus-Press Photo/Anthony Cepak Stephanie AshendEn, 19, talks about Wednesday’s downtown Owosso fire Thursday evening at Memorial Healthcare in Owosso.
A few hours after midnight Wednesday, Stephanie Ashenden and her friends were in a good mood after a night of celebrating.
Ashenden, her longtime friend Carolyn Skodak and two other women traveled from Owosso to Pontiac Tuesday night to celebrate Skodak's 21st birthday. The group returned to the Washington Street apartment where most of them lived shortly after 2 a.m., and Ashenden eventually dozed off as a few people stopped by and her friends prepared for bed.
It wasn't very long before chaos and confusion interrupted her sleep.
“The next thing I know, around 6 or so, they're waking me up,” said Ashenden, 19, a Corunna resident and Chemical Bank teller. “Carolyn was shaking me and telling me to get up - ‘There's smoke, there's smoke.'”
The fire that woke up Ashenden and her group of friends eventually killed Gregory Shire, 22, and injured several others. Officials are still investigating the blaze, which gutted a set of five third-floor apartments and left two first-floor businesses heavily damaged.
All of those injured are expected to make a full recovery, and most have been released from the hospital.
After waking up, Ashenden, Skodak and the others in the apartment - Terri Diffin, 20, and Samantha Bandt, 19, who went with them to Pontiac, and Shire, who came to visit sometime during the night - tried to figure out what to do. The apartment, leased by Diffin and occupied at the time by Diffin, Skodak and Bandt, is in the back of the Washington Street building overlooking an alley.
Although the group's first instinct was to head for the stairs or the fire escape, intense heat and smoke filled the hallways between the apartments, Ashenden said.
“We opened the door, and within seconds smoke filled the entire room,” she said.
In desperation, the friends broke out two windows facing the alley and leaned out, trying to breathe. Ashenden remembers the heat and smoke intensifying as she and Skodak leaned out one of the windows. As the heat and smoke grew worse, the friends' desperation and fear increased.
“I never saw one flame, not at all, but the heat was so hot and we were getting burned on our backs,” Ashenden said. “(Carolyn) was like, ‘I can't take it anymore, I'm jumping.'”
The memories of Skodak's jump are still vivid for Ashenden, who recalls seeing the horrified reaction from a group of bystanders on the ground.
“She just leaped, and it was like a cartoon when they jump from high distances - it was like ‘splat,'” she said. “I can still hear all the voices - I can hear the bystanders gasping, and I can hear Terri screaming.”
Ashenden said Skodak didn't move, leading her to believe the worst.
“I thought she was dead - she didn't move, she didn't do anything,” she said.
Firefighters were still heading to the scene, and Ashenden was faced with a similar decision as conditions worsened. Eventually, she decided to make the jump as well.
“I couldn't take it anymore - the burning - and I was passing out and I couldn't breathe,” she said. “It hurt so bad and tasted so gross.”
Ashenden said she attempted to jump to a small ladder mounted on the side of the building near her window, but missed. Her foot was caught in the ladder and she hung upside down for a moment before righting herself and climbing the rest of way down.
A police officer helped her off the ladder, which does not extend all the way to the ground.
Once on the ground, Ashenden heard Diffin and Bandt's cries for help as they leaned out the second window.
“You could just hear them screaming so loud,” she said. “Even though I was probably 50 feet away it sounded like they were right in my ear.”
Firefighters arrived on the scene and rescued Diffin and Bandt with a ladder truck. People in separate apartments at the front of the building were also rescued with ladders.
“Once they were downstairs, they were black from head to toe,” Ashenden said.
Ashenden, Bandt, Skodak and Diffin were taken to Memorial Healthcare, and Diffin was eventually transported to Flint's Hurley Hospital.
Ashenden, who suffered blistering on her back, smoke inhalation and leg injuries from her jump, was discharged from Memorial late Thursday. She said Skodak suffered a broken tailbone, a bruised lung and other injuries, but she's expected to be fine.
“She's still her normal self,” said Ashenden, who met repeatedly with Skodak Thursday.
Bandt, who suffered smoke inhalation, was discharged as well. Ashenden said Diffin has burns from her heels to her butt, but she is also expected to be released from Hurley in a week or so.
Meeting and speaking with the other survivors has been emotional for Ashenden.
“Every time I look in (Carolyn's) eyes, I start crying,” she said. “I talked to Terri for the first time today, and when I heard her voice we both started crying.”
Looking back on the incident, Ashenden feels lucky to be alive.
“My only thought was we were going to die,” she said. “I just thought, there's no way out, what do I do, what do I do...we were literally trapped, no way out but to jump three stories.”
Shire was later found dead by crews as they cleared the building. Ashenden said the group lost track of him, and he may have made an unsuccessful attempt to get to the stairwell or fire escape.
Police, who have called the fire suspicious, are in the process of determining if it was the result of arson. It's a suggestion Ashenden has a hard time dealing with.
“I don't know why it would be deliberately set,” she said. “Everyone up there is so kind-hearted.”
Investigators are expected to continue examining the site today.