Cahokia Heights helps residents displaced by apartment fire that killed one
The Cahokia Heights community, the American Red Cross, friends and family are coming together to do what they can to help the persons displaced by the fire at Touchette Elderly Apartments where one resident died Wednesday.
Francella D. Jackson, executive director of the Cahokia Heights Fitness and Community Center at 509 Camp Jackson Road, said they are housing 20 of the displaced residents, and friends and family have opened their homes to some others.
Authorities said as many as 50 people were brought out of the building that houses 75 residents who are 65 or older.
“We have cots at the Cahokia Heights Fitness and Community Center and we are providing all of the basic needs to victims, including food and shelter. The American Red Cross set up shelter here and they have been here all night long making sure the victims’ needs are met,” Jackson said Thursday. “It is a collective effort. We are all working together to provide whatever help we can.”
Cahokia Heights Mayor Curtis McCall said, “We are working together to provide whatever assistance we can to our seniors. This is a tragedy and all of our hearts are saddened as a result. We are sending condolences and prayers to the family who lost a member of their family.
“We are a strong community. Together we will get through this very painful time,” he said.
McCall said he is thankful and grateful that there was not more loss of life. He said he is praying for those who were displaced and is doing his best to see that they have the basic things they need.
The fire, which occurred Wednesday at 5880 Bond Ave., started in the second floor apartment of the victim who lost her life, according to Sharon Davis, assistant fire chief of the Camp Jackson Fire Department.
The victim was identified as 82-year-old Judy St. John.
“We were very fortunate not to have any other casualties,” Davis said.
Davis said the cause of the fire is under investigation by the Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office.
“It started in one apartment unit on the second floor,” Davis said. “That smoke subsequently spread throughout that floor and to the adjacent floors. The second floor had heavy smoke. The first floor had light smoke. The third floor didn’t have too much smoke at all.”
Asked about flames, Davis said, “Just in the one apartment. It was on one side of the unit and it had almost burned itself out by the time we got to that apartment. We did the rescues first.”
Davis said it wasn’t a very big fire but “just a fire that put up a lot of smoke.”
“Our first priority was getting all of the residents out of the building,” Davis said.
Davis said when she first arrived on scene, there was smoke from the floor to the ceiling and limited visibility.
Most of the residents were able to walk, she said.
“Some of them we sent with residents that could walk,” she said. “They helped the ones that did not walk as well. The lobby attendant and the maintenance worker helped them down the stairwell.”
Davis said a special emergency services medical division has been at the community center around the clock assisting the residents.
“I have actually been talking to pharmacists today to get their medicines replaced because none of the medicine that was in that building can be used,” she said.
Davis said they are getting great cooperation from the pharmacies.
Firefighter challenges
Davis is supposed to be on light duty since she broke her foot in another apartment fire in September but still responded to the Touchette fire on Wednesday.
“I fell on some steps and my foot got tangled up in a hose. I am actually on light duty,” she said of her injury.
When asked about the challenge of working with her injury, Davis chuckled and recalled her mother telling her God watches out for children and fools.
“Sometimes we happen to be both,” she said with a laugh.
“Well, you know, I have devoted my life to this community. I will do whatever I have to for them,” she said.
Asked about the sinking feeling she grapples with in situations like the Cahokia Heights fire where people are trapped and there is loss of life, Davis said, “Not everybody can do what I do. That’s why I do it.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2023 at 2:07 PM.
