CRESTVIEW — A family is homeless and uncertain about their future after a Friday night fire scorched a Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard apartment building.
Alicia Isom left her husband, McCordia, asleep when she left for a church revival. Her sister, Pam Morris, who lived with the Isoms, was out for the evening.
Alicia returned from church to find neighbors gathered around her building as smoke billowed out.
“I got home at 10:30 and it was in flames,” she said. “People said, ‘Help us get these people out!’ I looked up and said, ‘This is my apartment!’”
When she opened her front door, “it just blew up,” Isom said. “Fire was just shooting all over.”
She screamed for her husband, who escaped along with Alicia’s beloved bichon frise Cotton Candy.
“By the grace of God, he woke up,” Isom said. “But we lost everything.”
HOMELESS
The American Red Cross housed the family at the Super 8 motel for several days, but they have to move out tomorrow. A small cash donation went toward replacing a few pieces of clothes and paying the hotel pet deposit for Candy.
“We lost everything. We had to get coats to put on our back,” Isom said. “But I’m homeless now. I don’t know where to go. I guess we’ll be sleeping in our cars.”
Isom, who is originally from Crestview, moved back home with her family two years ago from St. Petersburg. She said the family can’t move in with her elderly mother, who lives in a small residence and receives daily dialysis.
Because the family had no renter’s insurance, replacing even the basics is problematic.
“If anybody could help, it would be so, so appreciated,” Isom said. “Mainly, we need a place to stay.”
$50,000 LOSS
A Crestview Fire Department incident report places the value of her apartment and its contents at $50,000. The report stated the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Units on either side of the Isoms’ apartment sustained $15,000 and $5,000 in damage respectively.
The North Okaloosa Fire District, the Baker Volunteer Fire Department, the Eglin Air Force Base Fire Department and Dorcas Volunteer Fire Department also responded to the blaze.
An account to assist the family has been opened at Wells Fargo Bank in Crestview. Donors may request their gifts be deposited in Alicia Isom’s fire account.
WANT TO HELP?
Donations to help the Isom family may be brought to the Wells Fargo Bank's Crestview branch, 320 Ferdon Blvd. N., for deposit in the family’s fire fund.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Fire leaves Crestview family homeless; help appreciated