Imagine the horror of waking up to see flames shooting out of a neighbor’s roof. That’s exactly what happened to Tyanna Jackson.
Jackson, who lives near the Wilder Apartment complex in Helen, says she awoke to the smell of smoke around 4 a.m. Friday. She didn’t think much about it at first. “I thought the lady underneath me had burnt something,” she says. Jackson says she laid back down but the smell kept getting worse. “It woke me back up and so I decided to get up.” She went to her window to see if it had started icing and that’s when she saw a cloud of white smoke. She looked up and saw the roof of a condo on the hill right above her was burning.
Jackson raced to check on her four children. She says she took them downstairs in case the fire jumped to their residence. She then stayed up all morning watching firefighters put out the flames.
“I felt so sad for the ones that had lost their home,” says Jackson. “I prayed for them and hoped they had a warm place to go.”
READ: Fire Displaces Four Families in Helen
The fire spread to three other condos before it was contained. Four families were displaced by the fire. The Red Cross was called in to assist them. The cause remains under investigation.
Reflecting on what she witnessed Jackson adds, “My prayers are with these families.”
