By Ashley B. Craig
The Charleston Daily Mail
CHARLESTON, W. Va. — Courtney Thomas tells others he is no hero, but his mother, Nicole, disagrees.
The Charleston family of five was left homeless when their Seventh Avenue home was gutted by fire two weeks ago. They have been staying at the Super 8 motel in Dunbar since. As the holidays approach, they are finding some comfort in the outpouring of support from the community.
Courtney, 17, is a senior at Capital High School and a member of the school’s dance company. His teacher, Michelle Legg, said the talented teen has natural skill and performed at the school the night of Dec. 3.
“I was exhausted,” Courtney said, remembering that night.
He danced all evening, performing in three pieces. After staying late to help clean up, he arrived home to see his mother off to work.
Nicole, the 37-year-old single mother of Courtney, 5-year-old Ayonna, and identical twins Kameron and Kaleb, both 18 months, works as a certified nursing assistant at Valley Center in Spring Hill.
They have only lived here about a year. Nicole, originally from Chicago, moved with her children from Atlanta because she felt the opportunities were better for all of them in Charleston.
She left shortly before her shift began at 11 p.m. and clocked in at 11:06 p.m., she recalled.
“It was our normal routine,” she said. “The kids were in bed. I was ready to go. I kissed them all and told them I’d see them in the morning.”
The younger children were already in bed; Ayonna was in her room and the twins were in Nicole’s bed. Courtney lay down in the bed with the boys and started off to sleep before the smell of smoke caught his attention. At first, he thought it was the heater and started downstairs to check.
“I couldn’t see because the whole living room was full of smoke,” he said. “I knew that wasn’t right so I went back and I could see smoke coming from under my door, like the whole door was smoky, and I could feel the heat coming from it.”
He knew his room was gone, destroyed by the fire. He went to his sister’s room and woke her. She is a heavy sleeper and he had to wake her twice. Courtney hurried back to his mother’s room, grabbed the sleeping boys and carried them and Ayonna downstairs. He struggled with the front door, he said, but got the younger children outside.
“I was scared,” said Courtney, who has aspirations of studying marine biology and dance at Florida State University next year. “But I had to get them out.
“My friends and everyone at school have been telling me I’m a hero, but like my friend and I were saying, it was really just common sense.”
“I think he’s a hero,” Nicole said pointedly. “He was so tired that night.”
The mother of four remembers how she felt that night. Her neighbor called her cellphone multiple times shortly after she arrived at work but the calls didn’t come through. When the neighbor finally got a connection, she told Nicole her house was on fire.
“When I pulled up the first thought I had was, ‘Where are my kids?’ ” Nicole said.
The family’s rental house was engulfed in flames when she arrived. A friend had Nicole’s four children in her vehicle nearby.
A neighbor told her it originally took firefighters five minutes to get there, but they then realized they would need a ladder truck from an East End fire station to help them extinguish the blaze. A ladder truck on the West Side was not operational that night.
“I’m a single parent,” Nicole said. “I worked for everything I have and everything was gone. Just gone.”
The firefighters extinguished the blaze and left shortly after. Fire Investigator Capt. Ken Tyree said the fire started at the back of the house and was accidental, but its exact cause remains unknown. The house, valued at about $95,000, sustained $75,000 in damage.
“That time of night, having two 1-year-old siblings and a 5-year-old to take care of, he’s definitely top notch in doing what he had to do,” Tyree said. “You can replace a structure but you can’t replace a life.”
Nicole and the children stayed at a friend’s house that night. She couldn’t sleep, she said, and she didn’t know what to do next.
The American Red Cross paid for three nights for the family at the Dunbar motel. The rest, Nicole said, has come from the support of the community.
People connected to Grandview Elementary School, where Ayonna attends kindergarten, have been stopping by the motel to pay for the family’s room. Students, mostly those in the dance company, and staff at Capital High have been raising money and gathering items for the family.
Legg, one of Courtney’s teachers, said the boys’ dressing room at the school is packed with items people have brought for the family.
“It started off with someone calling to say they had a washer and dryer and a twin bed,” Legg said. “Then one of the teachers here had a queen-size bed, frame and all.
“Another teacher had a microwave. One organization called and said they had a living room suite that they would store for them.”
She said Big Sandy Superstore has offered to donate items as well. Legg laughed as she noted items she would never have thought of. People brought in plastic wrap and other household items, clothing, toothbrushes, shoes and even Tupperware. Residents have also made monetary donations and have brought in gift cards to restaurants and grocery stores.
The school’s mentorship program will buy Christmas presents for the family, Legg said.
“I’m amazed,” Legg said. “People have been incredibly generous.
“I’ve never been more proud to be part of an organization,” she said. “From the first moment the kids found out what was going on with (Courtney), they jumped in with both feet to try to help him. They started having bake sales. They sent emails and got their parents to send out emails.”
Legg said they’re in a “holding pattern” right now because the family still has not found a permanent place to live. They still are taking donations but have been asking those with items to hold on to them until they find a place to live.
Nicole, who uses the Housing and Urban Development service, had not yet found a home for her family but had her eye on a three-bedroom house on Second Avenue. She was waiting, with high hopes, to hear back from the landlord Sunday.
Being cooped up in the motel room is rough on the family, Nicole said. She tries to let the younger children stretch their legs as often as possible.
“It’s challenging because we all have different personalities and different attitudes,” she said. “I take care of all of my kids to the best of my ability. Courtney is a big help to me with the kids.”
She is thankful for all the support they’ve received.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen to us,” Nicole said. “Everybody has pulled together to help us.”
Donations are being collected at Capital High School. Checks can be made out to the Capital High Dance Company, which is administering the funds.
Copyright 2011 Charleston Newspapers