Video: One Year Since Jamestown Apartments Fire

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Columbus, Miss. (WCBI) — It’s been one year since a deadly and devastating fire at Jamestown Apartments in Columbus.

To mark the anniversary the community is coming together to lend a helping hand to those who are still struggling with the tragedy.

“We still think about it, its still there, it never goes away…”, says survivor Shalonda Conner, “…it’s a haunting thing that’s just always gonna be there.”

During the fire, Conner banged on the apartment walls to alert her children. Once all of them were in the same room, Conner had to make her way to the only exit, the window.

“I couldn’t get the window up so I punched all the windows out with my hands. When it comes to my children, I would’ve used my head if I had too to get them out.”

While two of the children were rescued, Conner and her daughter Deja were still in the room as it burned.

Sam Collier was one of the firefighters that found the two and saved their lives.

“Training definitely kicks in in a situation like that…”, said Collier, “…it becomes, not really a reaction, just kind of an instinct.”

And one year later, Collier and the survivors are embracing the anniversary of tragedy that will forever tie their lives together.

“We train our whole careers for situations like that, and to see everything go as well as it did, as well as it could have, it means an awful lot…”, said Collier, “…and to see the future that they all have in front of them, it means a lot to know that we helped make that possible.”

Conner keeps in touch with the firemen who saved her family through social media and visits.

In honor of the anniversary and in memory of 11 year old Oranjula Shanklin, who lost her life in the apartment fire last year, Conner and community members held a balloon release at the Lock and Dam Amphitheater in Columbus.