‘We’re on fire!’ Deadly Independence fire leaves dozens without belongings or place to live
Residents of Indy Ridge Apartments woke early Wednesday morning to popping sounds.
Jordan Bass’s girlfriend thought they were gunshots in their second-floor apartment. And from the first floor, Jocquan Bowden knew the sounds were too low to be gunshots but said, “it smelled weird.”
“Maybe BB guns or something,” Bowden thought. He and his girlfriend, Kaitlyn McCallister, live on the backside of the bottom floor facing away from the parking lot in the building next to where the fire started. They recall seeing bright red and orange when they looked outside.
When they opened the door of their apartment, they saw their neighbors running, panicking.
“That’s when I was like, ‘Oh, my God, we’re on fire!’” Bowden said. They grabbed their two dogs and two cats before leaving their apartment.
Residents would later learn that a family of four, including two children ages 3 and 8, died in the morning fire.
How to help
The building where the family lived was a total loss, said Independence Fire Chief Jimmy Walker.
The fire that tore through the complex early Wednesday morning affected at least 24 units in one building at Indy Ridge, displacing at least 32 people.
The American Red Cross has connected with residents displaced by the fire to offer aid.
Some residents have also launched private fundraisers on GoFundMe, including Bowden who learned that two of their pets — a cat and a dog — died in the fire, and Jaiyah Roberts, whose 1-year-old son survived the fire along with her mother and sisters.
“Just two weeks ago, we celebrated my baby’s first birthday and we were showered with so much love and gifts for him, which all went to flames,” Roberts wrote on her fundraising page. “As a new mother, I could never imagine the feelings that I had when I got the call that my baby and my family had to be pulled from the top floor of a burning building while I was away.”
The Player’s Club Bar and Grill, an Independence bar located at 1501 S Noland Rd, also announced they are accepting donations for those displaced in Wednesday morning’s fire. Owner Jennifer Brashear had a pile of things she was already going to donate when she heard about the fire, according to Player’s Club employee Kristen Howe.
“We are looking to immediately clothe people and keep them warm,” Howe said. “We’re focusing on clothing and something they can wear and not freeze.”
Howe said Player’s Club is accepting clothes of any size, as well as blankets, shoes, coats, socks, toiletries and any other essential items. Their doors are open from 12:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The bar is still trying to figure out where to drop off the donations they are collecting, but has been in contact with several aid organizations. The Roger T. Sermon Community Center in Independence is no longer accepting donations.
The fire started as a cooking fire in one of the units at Indy Ridge, said Mike O’Connell, a spokesperson for the Fire Safety division of the Missouri Department of Public Safety. Independence firefighters responded to the fire shortly before 5:50 a.m.
A resident of the Indy Ridge Apartments had left the kitchen while cooking, then run back in upon hearing the smoke alarm to see a grease fire, Walker shared Wednesday night. The resident attempted to put the fire out with a fire extinguisher, then fled the apartment, leaving the front door open, Walker said.
O’Connell said that the fire did not start in the same unit in which the victims lived. The fire had started in a neighboring apartment, spreading across two floors as well as to the building’s attic and roof, Walker said.
The Department of Public Safety, which has taken over primary communications regarding the fire, has not publicly identified the four victims. The Department has also not shared a final count of how many people were injured in the fire. An investigation into the fire is ongoing, O’Connell said.
Fleeing a fire
Battalion Chief Eric Michel of the Independence Fire Department previously said that the fire appeared to have started on the third floor. The bodies of the family of four were found on the third floor about three hours after the fire started, according to Walker.
Bass, who lives in a second-floor apartment next to the building where the fire started, saw a fire truck outside his window as his girlfriend hid under the bed. After running downstairs and seeing the flames, Bass and his partner grabbed their three cats and ran for the door.
“They offered us shelter and stuff, but we were just standing right up to the side in the parking lot because I couldn’t keep my eyes off it,” Bass said.
Paige Miller lives in the building across from the fire-torn buildings and watched the scene unfold. Miller has heard several rumors about how the fire originated.
She’s been told a resident was cooking, walked away from a hot stove, and called 911 before leaving the apartment. She also heard that someone had attempted to extinguish a grease fire with water, which only makes a grease fire grow.
Miller’s main concern was for the resident who lived under the apartment where the fire started because he is blind, she said. She was relieved to hear that he wasn’t one of the residents who died in the fire but watched firefighters rescue several families and pets.
Miller also said she watched an explosion she thinks ultimately killed the family of four that died.
“All I can think about is the babies,” Miller said. “The terrifying fear of being burnt alive literally freaks me out.”
None of the residents knew the family that died in the fire. The deceased 8-year-old was a second-grade student at William Yates Elementary School in Independence, according to a letter principal Kerri Edwards shared with parents and guardians Wednesday afternoon.
“Our staff members are completely heartbroken, and we have just begun the grieving process,” Edwards wrote. “...I ask that you keep our school family in your thoughts and prayers.”
William Yates staff and faculty directly notified the parents of every student in the child’s class but did not share any updates directly with students, according to the letter. William Yates is part of the Blue Springs R-IV School District, which was unavailable Wednesday to discuss the deceased student’s identity.
“Please keep in mind that students may hear their peers talking about the tragedy in the coming days,” Edwards wrote.
Sheltering and rebuilding
Several other fire departments were called in to help fight the fire throughout the day, Walker said. Fire responders searched the building door-to-door while working to contain the blaze to one building; two firefighters were briefly hospitalized Wednesday with third-degree burns.
Bass’s apartment is unlivable but he estimates 90% of his and his partner’s items were unaffected. He is grateful to be able to salvage most of his things after the fire and is optimistic about his renter’s insurance payout as they plan to live with his sister, who is also at Indy Ridge, as they wait to be placed in a new apartment at the end of the month.
Bowden and McCallister aren’t as fortunate as they wait for their new apartment.
They said the complex is putting displaced tenants at a Best Western Hotel less than a mile from the complex. But the couple left their wallets and valuables in the apartment that they haven’t been able to enter since evacuating. They also said a room at the hotel would be around $100 a night, and the complex would reimburse them after the fact.
The Sermon Center and the Red Cross were recommended to assist the couple, but they said those entities won’t allow their pets.
The fire also occurred on the morning of Bowden’s 30th birthday. All of his minimal birthday cheer was swept away after the fire.
“I feel terrible for him, it’s his birthday,” McCallister said.
“I didn’t care about it before this,” Bowden said. “But now, even if I wanted to go see a movie, Main Event, go bowling like we had planned, can’t even think about that.”
Reporter Noelle Alviz-Gransee contributed this report.
This story was originally published January 22, 2025 at 6:51 PM.
