Sitting in the Dodge Park Community Center—turned into a Red Cross emergency shelter—a Northside Columbus resident recalled the harrowing day fire broke out in the Broad Meadows apartment complex. “I opened the door, like four inches, and black smoke came in my face and I felt the heat,” he said. “It was burning my eyes and nose.”
The resident called 911 and told the dispatcher he was trapped. He stayed on the phone as fire fighters braved their way up to his third-floor apartment to rescue him. Once safely outside, the man, who prefers to remain anonymous, said he saw firefighters performing CPR on a woman and another woman being loaded into an ambulance.
This gentleman, along with others who were displaced because of this fire, were provided with a safe place to sleep, food, health care and emotional support at our shelter at Dodge Park. Overall, we provided assistance for 37 people impacted by the fire.
Robin Burmeister was one of the volunteers who cared for the residents staying at the Red Cross shelter. She’s been volunteering with the Red Cross for nearly 20 years. “I don’t know how many people I’ve hugged over the years, and held while they cried,” Burmeister said. She did a lot of that, as well as listening, while staffing the Red Cross shelter at Dodge Park. “I talked to a woman who jumped from the third floor, I tried to comfort her.”
Volunteer Maria Erickson has traveled to help people impacted by disaster in other parts of the country. She’s traveled to St. Louis and Tampa and is now helping in Columbus. “It feels good to help in the community where I live,” Erickson said. She played softball with one of the shelter client’s cousin and uncle. “That’s why I’m happy to be here to do something in my own community.”
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