A set of keys, a pair of glasses and a wedding ring are some of the items Kathryn Rennells left behind when fire engulfed the third floor of her Haslett apartment building early Tuesday morning.
The fire began on the upper level of the three-story, 24-unit building at about 1 a.m. Tuesday, Meridian fire officials said. Flames and smoke shot through the Lakewood Apartments' roof and the building suffered extensive damage. However, fire officials said there were no serious injuries.
Rennells, a 2002 MSU graduate, feared photos from her wedding last August and other irreplaceable items were lost in the fire. Without her glasses, she said she didn't even have a good view of the East Lansing and Meridian Township firefighters battling the blaze at 5735 Ridgeway Drive.
The smell of smoke hung in the night air and ashes sprinkled down on the dozens who stood across the street watching firefighters use two ladder trucks to douse the flames. Crews worked into the afternoon to extinguish hotspots.
A loud popping sound could be heard shortly before the fire was noticed, Rennells and other residents said.
"You wake and bright lights are on you," she said of the emergency lighting. "Then you go outside and the balcony is on fire."
Rennells said she and her husband, Roger Rennells, pounded on doors to wake others as they exited the building. She said the building had fire alarms but no sprinklers.
"The residents went up and down the hallways banging on the doors, hollering for people to evacuate," Meridian Township Fire Chief Fred Cowper said. He said the cause of the fire was not immediately known, but said there will be an investigation.
Residents of the building sought shelter with family, friends and through the Red Cross.
After spending 18 years in the same two-bedroom apartment, resident Donna Dix said she had to say goodbye to it and everything she had collected throughout her life in just 30 seconds.
"Everything is gone," she said. "My china, furniture and all of my pictures."
Grabbing her black leather handbag and a coat, Dix said she didn't even have time to rescue her cell phone that was just sitting on her kitchen table. She borrowed a stranger's phone to call her daughter.
"Everything was so fast," Dix said. "I heard a knock on my neighbors door and that was it - I was just about ready to go to bed."
Displaced residents, some swaddled in blankets, other wearing only the shorts and T-shirts they went to bed in, were comforted by neighbors who offered care ranging from warm cups of coffee to shelter from the rain and smoke.
Despite the fire, Kathryn Rennells had an idea on how to recoup some of her losses.
"I guess we will have to have another wedding," she said cracking a brief smile on her otherwise solemn face.
