You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
The Apartment Fire.
I pull up to the 8 plex. A group of people are on the lower patio enjoying a warm day.
“Is this where the senior citizen died in the house fire,” I ask.
The man in the chair points upstairs.
My eyes drift up to a sky filled with fluffy clouds. The clouds are in front of the sun and it creates an ethereal veil as I gaze to the 2nd story.
There I see a wreath. It is made of yellow and white and orange flowers. There is writing in the wreath. I will later come to learn that it says Love you Momma.
“We’re you guys around+,” I ask the group.
“We were all here,” they say in unison.
I will eventually be introduced to a 53 year old man named Emanuel.
Emanuel looks much older than his 53 years.
He is wearing an Atlanta hat and a white scruffy beard. His T-shirt is black with graphics that are not immediately recognizable.
He has a neck tattoo and I can tell he’s seen his share of trouble in the past. He will tell me this as we spend the next 30 minutes together.
“What happened?” is all I have to ask Emanuel.
The springy grandfather of 16 isn’t going to tell me. He’s going to show me.
He jets up the stairs. He is talking, not worrying about whether we are listening, or behind him.
We follow closely. This is the story we came for. The hero’s story. The man who tried to save his neighbor, the 70 year old woman who was trapped in apartment number 3.
Emanuel moves up the rickety old stairs.
“And I moved fast like this,” he says, nearing the top.
My camera man is young and he is right behind the spritely old man.
I am behind the duo extending the microphone sensing something unique is about to happen.
I knew something might happen the moment I met Emanuel and he shook my hand with alacrity.
He looks like a mug shot I’ve seen. He is a caricature of a denizen who lives in a neighborhood you might avoid in the darkness. Appearances are deceiving. I sense something great.
Emanuel springs to the door. It’s melted, burned, covered with a layer of soot.
He drops to his knees and with eyes wide open, a face filled with intensity that is recalling the moment, the horror, he says; “She is on fire. She is Burning. She is Burning.”
His words are heart-felt, strange.
I am looking at him knowing that this is a unique moment. Some people give you a good interview. Few re-enact the moment, like a thespian acting out the horrific moment that is clearly still on his thoughts.
“Everything’s going,” he continues, his arms simulating flames coming off the 70 year old woman.
“I mean what do I need to do? And her clothes is burning, I got to take them off, I don’t care, she was just like this,”
He turns to the camera. His face is blank, helpless. He is channeling the old woman who is on fire, staring at him in the darkness surrounded by flames shooting up the side of her body.
“she couldn’t say nothing, but she was looking at me and I said Oh Lord, I got to do something. I took her socks.”
He pulls off an imaginary pair of socks and tosses them to the side.
“I got burnt. I don’t care nothing about no fire. We picked her up and took her downstairs. Everyone tried to help that lady cause that lady was well known.”
After a minute on his knees, he stands.
He looks exhausted, emotionally spent, as if he has relived this horrific moment.
“Then when I found out that she passed away, I felt like I didn’t do my job right, but I tried my best.”
It’s a poignant end to a terrible story.
I am usually effusive, quickly jumping into my interviews to pump them up with life. This interview needs nothing more. I pause. It’s quiet. We all need a moment.
I think about what I have just heard. I think about what this man has experienced.
What must it be like to be staring at an old woman who is engulfed in flames. But it is not violent the way he describes it. It almost seems peaceful, as if she is surrounded by a glowing veil of orange.
She says nothing, she doesn’t move. She simply stares at him with eyes imploring him to help.
The man who says he has seen a lot of things in his life, but never seen anything like this, says he is forced to make a decision. He acted the only way he knows how.
What you would do faced with the same situation?
Can you imagine.
Your neighbor, your friend, on fire, in a sphere of flames, melting, imploring you to help.
No fire extinguisher. No blanket. Nothing but your bare hands. What to do.
Emanuel did what he could.
Every day is a gift. Experience it. Breathe in the sunshine. Be thankful.
Life’s Crazy™