Fire crews were still monitoring the structure for hot spots on Wednesday afternoon."It's just too dangerous for us to be in there," Bevis said.Donnie Brown, 54, said he was asleep when his wife, Gennie Holloman, woke him in the wee hours and told him their apartment was burning up.He had stumbled to the bathroom to hastily put on jeans, a T-shirt and shoes, but he was blinded by smoke and fell, cracking his head on an iron bathtub."I thought I was in a dream," said Brown, who told his story Wednesday at a relief shelter set up by the Red Cross inside nearby Allen Elementary, 1881 S. Elpyco, for those displaced by the fire.
He said he is disabled after 17 years working in custodial services for the Wichita school district, although he works for the Good Neighbor ministry, and for the Salvation Army as a bell ringer during Christmas. His wife worked at Wesley Medical Center until she was disabled by surgery, he said."We had to crawl our way out," said Brown, who was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt brought to him after the fire by his brother because the clothes he escaped in reeked of smoke. The couple lost TVs, family photos, furniture, a phone, DVDs, jewelry – about $10,000 worth of belongings. They had no rental insurance.
"We all made it out just in the nick of time."Swan, who also is staying at the relief shelter, said the blare of sirens awoke her. Then she saw smoke pouring from some vents inside her home."I put on pajama pants and grabbed my keys," then ran outside, she said. She wore bright blue medical scrubs and rubber shoes as she spoke Wednesday evening. She said the Red Cross gave them to her because she had no other clean clothes.She left everything – her purse, identification, medications, furniture and personal belongings – behind.