Andrew Galliano Sr.
October 19, 2010
Local historian revisits WWII submarine warfare
October 21, 2010
Jennifer Savoie was asleep last Wednesday when the fire alarm in her apartment began to sound. It took her a few minutes to come back into consciousness and realize the constant beeping was warning her of a budding fire, one that would eventually catch and render the four-unit apartment building at 225 Bayou Drive Road as untenable.
“After a few minutes, I realized that’s what it was, and I opened my eyes,” Savoie said. “When I opened my eyes, there was smoke everywhere, all in the room. I hurried up and I got my glasses, and I went into the living room and grabbed all of my cats, and I was calling 911.”
Savoie made it out of her second-story home before the fire broke out, but the smoke had still filled the room. She would later be transported to Thibodaux Regional Medical Center via ambulance and treated for smoke inhalation. She was released within two hours, she said.
Roy Bergeron, the building’s manager, was also taken to TRMC via ambulance for smoke inhalation. He arrived shortly after the fire had broken out, and checked the units to see what was going on, but he was overtaken by the smoke and was hospitalized. He was released within a couple of hours.
Nobody else was injured.
Lafourche Fire District No. 1 Chief Glenn Comeaux said the cause of the blaze is still under investigation, but witnesses at the scene said they were told it is likely “something chewed the wires” between two of the apartments.
Brittany Brown was arriving to her residence when she saw Savoie running down the stairway, cats in tow. Just two weeks ago, she had moved out of her parents’ house with her son and into the Bayou Drive apartment building. Now, one of her fellow residents was fleeing the building as smoke started to slip out of the roof.
“Jenny was coming down, running outside with her cats,” Brown said. “So I pulled up and was like, ‘What’s wrong?’ She was like, ‘The building’s on fire.’ So I took my key and opened my door and it was pretty much already going on and the smoke was coming out.”
Brown called April Bergeron, Roy’s wife who was at Wal-mart. Mrs. Bergeron instructed her to shut off the building’s power, which she did. The apartment building still stands, likely in part because they were able to flip the breakers and shut off the power.
Although the structure is still there, the interior was waterlogged and smoke damaged. Some possessions were salvageable but most furniture had to be thrown away.
“I don’t know,” Mrs. Bergeron said through tears the day of the fire about her future prospects. “I have no idea. None. Everything I have is destroyed almost. It was like one big family here. Everybody watched for everybody.”
The American Red Cross Southeast Louisiana Chapter sent a team to the scene to meet with the tenants. Stanley Keller, the emergency services coordinator for the Bayou Region, handed out his phone number and provided gift cards for food for the victims.
“We are assisting the clients with making sure they have a place to stay with food and clothing,” Keller said. “Those that need it, those that can be helped, we give them referrals to some.”
Keller said they can extend referrals that encompass anything related to the fire, including new housing or counseling, and they will help them in any additional ways that they can.
After the fire was extinguished, the tenants began to survey their belongings. Family members and neighbors arrived with trucks, and the 15-20 people worked together to load the trucks with anything that could be salvaged.
“They just moved out my house,” said Galen Brown, Brittany’s father. “They’re going to move back home with us, and she’ll get another apartment. It’s no loss there. I mean, she’s got a place and all, but she just had to go through all this.
“I’m glad nobody got hurt in there trying to put out this monkey mess.”
Scott Bynum (left) and his wife Dinah help load the bed of their truck with salvageable possessions from an apartment fire on Bayou Vista Drive. The Bynums were not affected by the fire, but decided to help their neighbor and friend, April Bergeron. ERIC BESSON
