Apartment Unit and Possessions within Destroyed

Hello my name is Evan I’m a 25 year old engineer living in New Albany. My unit at Kingsfield apartments was mostly turned to ash along with all of my possessions save a pair of boots and my safe which held a spare set of keys and some sentimental trinkets. So many people have asked how they can help and I didn’t know what to say so I opened up this gofundme for anyone who wanted to help.

Here is my story of the night it burned if you are interested: August 28th I gave a presentation to college students (engineers even younger than myself!) where I graduated in Evansville to help bridge the gap from where I am at in my career to where they are regarding experience, covering the engineering bar exam, guidance on their senior design projects, what my day to day job is like, and where the industry is at for pursuing jobs once they graduate.

I got home at about 9pm and waved at my neighbor taking out his trash and smelled wood smoke, I saw no flames so my thought was some house nearby was grilling or having a campfire. I went into my upstairs unit at the end of the building and piddled on my phone in the bedroom closet, winding down. After 10 minutes I heard some popping and clamor coming from my living room and thought someone had broken in. When I marched in there bright lights shown through my patio balcony door window and illuminated the room. When I opened the patio door smoke flooded in and my deck was already circled with crackling fire.

I ran outside immediately without shoes and called the fire department and the building owner. I had only had my phone and clothes on me so I ran back quickly up the stairs to try to grab my keys and wallet but when I opened my front door fire and smoke had already made my unit impossible to reenter, let alone take 3 steps in to grab those two items off my table by the door. I was hit by an ashy plastic panel from the ceiling and ran back down the wood staircase.

I then stood like an idiot mesmerized by the situation when a woman who had driven by shook me out of my trance and told me to start knocking on doors. The fire alarms had not gone off. I ran to my end of the building where the fire was and she ran to the opposite end. I went first to my neighbor I had seen taking out the trash, he lived on the bottom floor, and beat on his door and told him to get out immediately. He and his wife had just gotten into bed.

The neighbor upstairs across from my unit was impossible to reach, fire had seeped through my apartment and covered the top of the stairs and hallway between the units. He is a single older gentlemen who is often not home and I just hoped he was not home this time. I talked to him later and learned he was home and when he opened his front door he saw the same fire I did in the hall and had to jump off the balcony, a rough course of action considering he had had both knees replaced in the past. Fortunately he was the only injury and only required some stitches on his calf and is walking (I believe you can find an interview with him on the news).

The unit below mine where the fire started was impossible to reach from any side by this point.

The woman who had driven by had an army of tenants now extracting other people and pets. The fire department had just arrived to begin their work. I spent a couple hours watching them blast water directly into my living room and bedroom through the roof that had collapsed above them.

The next day I talked to the fire officials on site and they said the fire started on the unit below mine, outdoors on the deck likely due to a cigarette or outside electric outlet mishap. All of my clothes, shoes, computer, tv, furniture, golf clubs, books, gaming systems, pictures, kitchen appliances, keys, and wallet and anything else within were turned to ash, destroyed, or warped beyond repair from the heat. My landlady told me my unit suffered the worst of the lot as fire and heat goes directly up.

Right now I am staying with my mom in my sisters bedroom since she just went to college for the semester.