3 years ago
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Two years ago today, life changed for 56 senior citizens living in a Conway apartment complex. An electrical fire destroyed their homes at the East Oakwood Apartments. They lost everything.
Wednesday, life took another turn for those people. The complex has been rebuilt and people are ready to move in.
Just five days before Christmas 2004, smoke and flames billowed out of the East Oakwood Apartments in Conway. Firefighters safely evacuated 56 elderly tenants but their lives turned upside down. Dorothy Nelson says, "I heard the alarm go off and I said someone probably burned up some bacon or something you know, and I said I better look and I opened up and the smoke was just coming up, coming down there." Like so many of her neighbors, Nelson escaped the burning building with only the clothes on her back. Two years later, a new building is ready and Nelson became one of the first fire victims to tour her new home.
Nelson says, "I can't wait until I get in here. It's so beautiful."
Besides the fresh paint and shiny new appliances, the rebuilt unit has better fire protection than her old apartment including sprinklers. Nelson says this is the best Christmas present she's ever had.
"It was really something to go through with, but we're so grateful we have this beautiful place to go," says Nelson.
Chief Bart Castleberry with the Conway Fire Department says, "For the number of rescues made and the possibility of losing someone in that fire, it was probably as bad as it gets." Castleberry returned for the grand opening and recalls the devastation the fire caused so many senior citizens.
Castleberry explains, "You know fire is tough on anybody, but that group is especially susceptible to it."
Nelson and many other residents we talked with say they know they're lucky to have made it out of that fire two years ago and thankful for a new start so late in life.
"Everything?s gonna be okay now," says Nelson.
The new $3.8 million complex was funded through insurance proceeds from the fire and a loan from USDA's rural development office. East Oakwood is a government housing project.
