News

Fighting the fire

By DOMINIC ADAMS Argus-Press Staff Writer

Thursday, July 3, 2008 10:39 AM EDT

Argus-Press Photo by Anthony Cepak Terri Diffin talks about the morning of July 4, 2007, when she and her friends escaped the burning Wesener building. Her burned-out bedroom window — top row next to the brick — was their only escape. One man, 22-year-old Greg Shire, didn’t make it out.

OWOSSO - When Terri Diffin walks down the alley off Park Street, it hits her.

With the wind blowing just right, the smell brings everything flooding back - like a recurring nightmare from childhood that seems so real.

And just like the nightmare, the memories won't go away.

The chalky taste of the ashes. The smell of her burning skin. That she was the last person to talk to Greg Shire alive.

On July 4, 2007, Diffin and several others sustained injuries after someone started a fire in the two-flight stairwell at the Wesener Building on Washington Street.

Firefighters discovered Shire's body a couple hours after 11 people escaped the blaze. He was 22.

“It was so hot I couldn't breathe. I almost fainted,” Diffin said. “I could feel my whole body just dripping wet with sweat because my legs were burning.”

The fire destroyed five apartments on the third floor and severely damaged three businesses on the first two floors.

The wait

Owosso police and fire officials said they removed 11 people from the building in about eight minutes.

But Diffin disagrees and said she waited at least 20 minutes.

Looking up at the eight burned-out third-floor windows, Diffin recounted the horrific events that left her with second-degree burns over both her legs.

Diffin said she went with Stephanie Ashenden, Samantha Bandt and Carolyn Skodak to Pontiac earlier in the evening for Skodak's 21st birthday. The group was back in their apartment by 2:30 a.m. Shire and a friend stopped over to visit shortly thereafter.

Diffin said she went to bed at 3 a.m. because she had to work at 9 a.m.

At 6 a.m., she was jolted awake.

“Carolyn barrels in my door and says, ‘Oh my gosh, the whole apartment is filling with smoke,'” Diffin said. “It was lots of black smoke, you could see it pushing its way in.”

Diffin said she hopped out of bed and grabbed her cell phone to call 911. The dispatcher told her to try to close the apartment door leading to the building's hallway.

“I woke Greg up on my way to the door,” Diffin said. “I'm like, ‘Greg get up, get up, get up.' He sat up and looked at me and laid back down. But then I thought he was coming after me because I ran to the windows in the bedroom.”

Diffin still lives with some guilt from the tragic event.

“I feel so bad that I didn't actually grab his hand and say, ‘Let's go,'” she said. “I figured he would just wake up and go.”

Hanging their heads out smashed-out bedroom windows, the four girls were in a panic.

Skodak couldn't take the heat and when her hair started to burn, she decided to make her move.

Climbing out the window, Skodak gripped the ledge and hung down as far as she could before letting go. Diffin said she saw Skodak land on her feet and then collapse to her back.

“I thought she was dead,” Diffin said.

Ashenden followed, leaping out the window to her left toward a makeshift pipe ladder attached to the side of the building. But she missed and when her leg caught the bars, she was able to climb down.

“Once I got to the window I was ready to just jump out because I didn't want to burn alive,” Diffin said.

Diffin said she would've jumped too, but she thought she would hit a large air-conditioning unit on the ground underneath her window.

Complicated rescue

Telephone wires and power lines zig-zagging across three buildings made it difficult to get Diffin and Bandt out the window, Owosso firefighters and police said.

The first ladder firefighters brought to the window only reached the second floor.

“I kept saying, ‘Please let me jump on it, please let me jump,'” Diffin said. “They wouldn't let me.”

Once a ladder was up to the window, Diffin went out before Bandt because of burns to her legs.

The memories still torment the 21-year-old today.

“I did not think I was going to get out of there alive,” Diffin said.

A long recovery

When she arrived at the Memorial Healthcare emergency room, attendants frantically wrapped cold, wet towels around her legs.

But the Owosso hospital didn't have a burn unit to get Diffin the care she needed.

“They said, ‘We've got to get her somewhere,'” Diffin said, recalling the terror. “I was so scared because they were saying, ‘We've got to go, we've got to go now.'”

Two surgeries and 20 days later, Diffin left Hurley Medical Center in Flint.

She didn't go back to work for three more months, had to wash the burns twice a day and was on a steady dose of painkillers.

While in the hospital, Diffin learned a man died.

Her mother broke the news that Shire had died.

“I was crying. I was upset,” Diffin said. “I felt like it hit me more when I was out of the hospital. When I got home to Owosso, I didn't feel safe.”

The hospital wouldn't release Diffin to go to Shire's funeral.

Missing the service still bothers her.

“I wanted to go so I could pay my respects to him,” Diffin said, with tears running down her cheeks. “To tell him that I was sorry I didn't make sure that he actually got up that day. I guess I just wanted to say good-bye.”

Lingering questions

There are so many unknowns for Diffin and the survivors.

Jacqueline Vernier lived in Apartment 4, a short distance from the fire escape.

She said she got out of work early and went up north at the last minute the night before the fire.

“I really feel like it was a blessing,” Vernier said. “Like God knew where I was supposed to be. There was a reason; I don't doubt that for a second.

“It really was a mix of emotions because I felt awful for Greg's family and the girls who had to jump, but I was so thankful that I wasn't here.”

When the investigation turned to homicide, fear set in with both Vernier and Diffin.

“At first I was very scared because we heard so many different things. We heard accelerant was over every door, they deliberately wanted everyone dead,” Vernier said. “I kept thinking, I'm not dead, so they're probably out to get me. I kept thinking, why would someone want to do that?”

Owosso Deputy Police Chief Mike Rau said someone had to bring something into the stairs - specifically between the second and third floors - to start the fire.

Det. Sgt. Mark Pendergraff of the Michigan State Police said anyone with information should call the toll free arson line at 1-800-44-ARSON.

Posters with Shire's picture still hang throughout the community, offering up to a $35,000 reward.

Unless someone comes forward who saw something, catching the arsonist will be tough.

“This case will never be closed,” Pendergraff said. “We believe there are people out there who have information about this fire. We urge them to come forward.”

Diffin said the five apartments on the third floor was a small social community.

She said the residents had many friends who stayed over frequently.

“What really hurts today is that person's not found, knowing that it's almost been a year,” Diffin said. “What are they going to do next? Greg will never rest in peace until his killer is found.”

A mural painted on the front window of the building by Shire's former girlfriend pays homage to the young man who had his life cut short.

The neck is a guitar and the body a piano because Shire was an aspiring musician, teaching himself to play various instruments.

The picture is a giant elephant, because no one will ever forget what happened in that building July 4, 2007.

The community won't, the survivors won't and the family and friends of Greg Shire definitely won't.

- Contact Dominic Adams at 725-5136 extension 239 or by e-mail at dadamsarugspress@gmail.com.

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