Replica watches

By CHRISTINE L. PRATT

and RACHEL JACKSON

Staff Writers

MILLERSBURG -- They gathered in small clusters, on the sidewalk, in the parking lot and throughout the grassy yards. Young and old -- some barefoot, many crying, even more hugging, talking on cell phones -- all watched ... watched as fire licked its tongue over the rooftop as thick black smoke billowed from the blazing apartment building.

Around 4 p.m. Tuesday, fire and crews and emergency squads from across Holmes County were called to a fire at Glenwood Apartments, 101 Lakeview Drive.

Xavier Ellis, 17, was playing video games at home when "somebody knocked on our back door and told us there was a fire."

TAG Heuer Watches

He evacuated his siblings, Brice, 12, and Nya, 9, as well as a couple of dogs, a ferret and a laptop computer, and fled to safety, along with his neighbors.

"We got pretty safe," he said, noting, with that in mind, "As far as I'm concerned, everything will be fine."

It was by virtue of a text message from her son Jennifer Ellis, shopping at Wal-Mart, learned of the fire ravaging their apartment building.

"When I walked out of Wal-Mart, I saw the smoke. I was terrified," she said. And, despite her terror and fear, the 10-year resident of the complex said of her son, "I'm really proud of him."

As firefighters attempted to keep the fire at bay on the other side of a fire wall, protecting her home from the blaze, she and her son returned briefly to the apartment to collect some of their belongings.

Hopeful the fire would stop before torching her apartment, she said, "You never think it's going to happen to you."

discounted fendi handbags

It's a sentiment many in the crowd were muttering, among them Cindy Shaloy, whose apartment was sure not to fare as well as the Ellises'. Hers was right next to the one in which the fire reportedly originated, and it was Shaloy who was among the first to spot smoke and call 9-1-1.

She had just returned home from work and was outside talking to the neighbor when she saw the smoke, which turned into flames even before the first fire truck could arrive.

"I went to everyone's door and told them to get out," she said, noting only her 1 1/2-year-old grandson was in her apartment at the time, and they quickly were able to rush the sleeping toddler to safety outside the building.

The apartment is one she shares with her adult daughters, Shanna and Megan, her 11-year-old son, Kristopher, and grandchildren, Belicia, 2, and Cordell, 1 1/2.

"Everybody's out," she said, relieved, yet crying, holding a child and trying to comfort another. "I've never been through this before," she said, shaking her head.

Walking up to her, arms wrapped around her own toddler, Kristen Hamilton told Shaloy she had clothes in storage her 2-year-old daughter Madi had outgrown that she would make available to Shaloy's grandbabies.

"I'm a southern girl," Hamilton said, of her extending of aid, or "hospitality."

She lives at the far end of the building. "I think my apartment's safe, but I feel for the people who's lost everything, especially the ones with kids."

Noting soReplica Watches
Replica Watches