When Charlene Davis heard a booming sound outside of her bedroom early Feb. 14, among her imagined causes was not a fire spreading from her apartment’s basement boiler room.
“At first I thought it was the heat, because our heat went through the walls,” Davis said.
But when Davis walked out of the bedroom, the smell of smoke and warmth radiating under her feet stopped her in her tracks.
“I froze, and then I picked up my phone, and I put it back down, then I picked it up again. And I was like, ‘girl, you’ve got to call 911, you’ve got to do something,’” Davis said. “I really didn’t think it was going to be the way it was.”
Davis did call 911 and, after quickly dressing, ran outside to knock on her neighbors doors, alerting them of what would become a 3-alarm fire.
Three weeks later, Davis is among residents who remain displaced. As of Wednesday, the building on West 123rd Street and South Bishop Street was completely boarded up.
Davis’ son, Tyrus Jenkins, set up a GoFundMe page to collect donations for his mother who “has always been the one to help others.”
“For me, it’s hard to be like, hey, I need help,” Davis said. “I’m not that person. And my thought process is, if I’m helping me, I want to help everybody else. So it’s definitely been challenging.”
Davis lost nearly all of her possessions in the fire that spread to the attic, with video footage showing flames shoot out from the building’s roof.
She was one of the only apartment residents with renters insurance to help replace some of her lost items and expressed gratitude that a firefighter retrieved her mother’s urn after learning it was left inside her unit.
“I was videoing when I realized it, and I just started crying,” Davis said.
Davis and neighbor Paulette McGriff are living in hotel rooms and touring apartments when they can. McGriff said though her unit was only affected by water damage, she has not been allowed to reenter it to reclaim salvageable items.
The Calumet Park Fire Department did not respond to requests for more information.
“I’ve got a rolling tote. I’m homeless,” McGuff said.
Both said emotional breakdowns are common as a result of the experience and recalling the irreplaceable items lost.
For McGuff, that includes a customized couch pillow printed with a family photo that she was given as a 50th birthday gift.
“That’s the only picture I’ve got of me and all five of my kids,” McGuff said.
Davis said she most wishes she held onto a drawing her brother made of their mother, who died in 2023. She said she also lost items recently reclaimed from her mother’s now sold house.
“Hindsight is 20/20. I couldn’t think of everything, because I would have grabbed the file, I would have grabbed the picture,” Davis said.
Davis said all money raised from her son’s GoFundMe page will go toward furniture once she finds a more stable place to live. She’s grateful for the support from friends and family and is happy she chose to take a vacation with her children, planned before the fire.
“But when we were getting ready to come back, I had a feeling of sadness that came over me, and it was because I realized I wasn’t going home,” Davis said. “I was going back to a hotel. From one hotel to another.”
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
