Christmas Eve Fire Forces Young Couple To Rebuild

“Six Minutes. On December 24th, 2022, six minutes turned our lives upside down. That morning, we awoke to what we thought would be a normal and relaxing Christmas Eve, not to what would be one of the worst, and nearly the last, day of our lives. It is hard to understand how to escape a fire until you are in one. You don’t have a sense of what to grab or even how much time you have to safely escape until you are in the midst of the experience.”

- Miyah Byers and Jaris Owens

On Christmas Eve 2022, Miyah Byers and Jaris Owens were able to save themselves and the animals for which they cared when their apartment home caught fire. However, they lost everything when the devastating fire consumed the property and everything in it.

Miyah and Jaris, who have given so much to their community and Oberlin House of the Lord Fellowship, now need their community’s help to replace the physical goods on which they depend and contribute to their efforts to relocate and rebuild their lives, wherever God leads them.

Even in the face of tragedy and daunting loss, Miyah and Jaris retain the faith, hope and gratitude that mark the holiday season. Let us do the same by showing them kindness, love and generosity in their time of need. Please read the letter from Miyah and Jaris, attached below.

“This is the coldest Christmas we have ever experienced in Oberlin. All across the country, record-breaking winter weather has claimed lives, brought life-threatening cold weather, triggered power outages, and ignited devastating fires. Anyone that lives in the old wood frame houses in Oberlin knows how difficult it can be to take good care of them and manage the extreme temperatures when the seasons change as they have outdated infrastructure and little to no insulation. For the past two years, we have installed multiple window AC units for scorching summers and cranked up the heat for frigid winters. The windchill and temps were so cold this past week that we even had frost forming on the inside of the home’s original windows. We both knew that this winter storm was different than usual, but as we went to sleep fully clothed under two comforters to keep ourselves warm, we never could have imagined what would come the next morning on Christmas Eve.

Six Minutes. On December 24th, 2022, six minutes turned our lives upside down. That morning, we awoke to what we thought would be a normal and relaxing Christmas Eve, not to what would be one of the worst, and nearly the last, day of our lives. Around 8:19am, we were abruptly awakened from our sleep by the sound of loud bangs that sounded like gunshots coming from somewhere in the 3-floor apartment building. At first, we thought maybe there was some construction happening outside of the building, but as we came to our senses we could feel the impact of the banging beneath us. Jaris walked into the hallway of our apartment building and determined that the sounds were coming from the first floor apartment and he also saw some faint smoke beginning to build. Jaris immediately called our landlord and 911. Meanwhile, Miyah caught the smell of burning wood and she knew we were in imminent danger of fire. She immediately rushed to get dressed and get our cat and our friend’s dog we were pet-sitting out of the apartment as quickly as possible.

It is hard to understand how to escape a fire until you are in one. You don’t have a sense of what to grab or even how much time you have to safely escape until you are in the midst of the experience. From the call to 911 at 8:21am to the time we were able to exit our apartment with our pets, smoke began rolling through the floorboards and overwhelming the air to the point of choking our lungs. Our cat was scared and we almost had to make the heartbreaking decision to leave her behind. However, we are so grateful that before we left Miyah was able to push furniture out of the way to grab her and then quickly exit the building with the dog. We had no choice but to leave with the clothes on our backs and get the animals to safety. By the time we had finally gathered ourselves outside away from the house, it was 8:25 am.

Over the course of the morning, our incredible neighbors welcomed us into the safety of their home. The fire department responded quickly and we thought they’d be able to put it out and we could return to our home after getting it cleaned out. Our church family members fed us breakfast and helped us get some initial toiletries and clothing. Later that afternoon, standing in the middle of Walmart, we saw the initial photos on Facebook of our apartment in total shambles. Everything we had collected over the years including irreplaceable valuables from living and late family members was gone. We broke down in tears in the middle of the store seeing photos of our lives burnt to the ground.

Our story as individuals and as a couple has been difficult, but also faith-filled. After COVID shut down schools everywhere in 2020, we weren’t able to walk in our graduation ceremony. We ended up back in Oberlin living with and caring for a late family member who was ailing in health, and it took us months to find this apartment. After finding jobs, we worked to furnish it over the course of two years as well as building our career paths as community organizers, artists, thespians, filmmakers, young farmers and so much more. Every single piece of equipment that supported our livelihoods, hobbies and trades, as well as every piece of art we have created, every momento, every family heirloom that we owned was lost in the fire and we are now left to rebuild our lives from the ground up. Our only belongings that still stand is our backyard garden that we built with our own hands and shared the produce we grew with our friends, coworkers, family and neighbors. As devastating as it is, it’s a bittersweet thing to know that our backyard farm, a tangible, positive representation of who we’ve become over our 24 years of life, survived. We trust that our future is bright and with the strength of our community and the strength of our God, we can rebuild.

But we are not sure what this means for us in the immediate future and we need every bit of help that we can get as we begin this long journey of not only replacing what we lost, but relocating and determining where our lives are going to go from here. We love this community. Oberlin has held us and shaped us in ways that we are eternally grateful for. We thank everyone who has reached out to us, welcomed us into their homes, given us short cash, given us hugs, made us cups of coffee, prayed with us, and so much more. We humbly ask that you donate to this fund if you are able, and if not, please share it with people who you know and trust. Thank you for all of your love and support, and we will keep you updated as best we can.

With deep love and gratitude,

Miyah and Jaris”