Family recalls horrors of Cedar Rapids apartment fire

CEDAR RAPIDS — It started as a happy day for Michele Hard.

Her daughter, Courtney Stickney, got married Monday afternoon. Members of the family later went to a splash pad to celebrate the union.

But, later that night, all Hard could do was watch in horror as the apartment building where her mother, daughters, grandson and son-in-law lived went up in flames. She wondered if her loved ones had made it out in time.

'I just screamed,' Hard said.

Hard said her family made it out of the burning two-story building relatively unscathed. Her daughter, Christine Randall, hurt her leg jumping from a second-floor window into the arms of two rescuers, family members said. Randall lost nine cats, two dogs, a rabbit and a fish in the fire. Joan Ledeker, Hard's mother, lost her pet bird.

Hard said she believes most of the family's possessions were lost in the fire at the four-plex, which the family began renting three weeks ago. On Tuesday morning, she was waiting to see if any of the belongings could be salvaged.

The Cedar Rapids Fire Department was called to the structure, located at 211 15th St. SE, at 11:30 p.m. Monday for a report of a structure fire with residents possibly trapped inside. Responding crews found the entire rear side of the two-story building engulfed in flames.

After an interior search was conducted, firefighters were pulled out of the structure as the fire had spread across the attic. The fire was attacked from the rear and required most of the ceiling to be removed in order to extinguish the smoldering rafters, according to the fire department.

Ledeker, who shares a unit with her granddaughter — Hard's daughter — Connie Odell, said she was trying to go to bed when Odell's daughter, 'started going crazy.' Ledecker said she went to the back of the unit to investigate what was bothering the dog.

'I went back to the kitchen and I saw the flames coming up the windows,' Ledeker said.

Ledeker called for her granddaughters to get out of the building and called her daughter. Hard had been down near her other home on Bever Avenue witnessing a garage fire on Fourth Avenue.

Hard said she's now moving her family members back to her home.

'We're all back at the Bever house,' she said.

The American Red Cross and Salvation Army were called to assist the displaced residents. Cedar Rapids spokeswoman Maria Johnson said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Night fire