On Saturday night, October 26 I received a text from a good friend of mine stating that HVAF was on fire. I immediately jumped out of bed, got dressed, and headed to the office. I don’t live far from work, so within minutes of driving north on I-65 downtown, I could see a large plume of smoke over HVAF’s Manchester Apartments. The sight of the smoke was sickening and was also my first realization that this was a serious fire.

Manchester Apartments is our largest transitional housing property. At the time of the fire, 48 veterans were working toward self-sufficiency there.

As I know now, the fire alarms started going off in the Manchester Apartments at 9:33pm, and thankfully, as we practiced, veterans began evacuating.  I arrived at approximately 10:10pm and flames were shooting several feet into the air. I saw our on-call social worker already at the scene. She was helping veterans check in with firefighters and together we began to direct them to the parking lot across the street. The smoke was thick, and we wanted to get them to cleaner air.

The next several hours of the evening were a blur, a mix of adrenaline and concern propelled us all through the night. When I first arrived, there were only a few fire trucks and throughout the night the response grew to over 100 firefighters working to extinguish the flames.

I am often reminded of what a wonderful, dedicated team HVAF is. Like the firefighters responding to the fire, HVAF staff showed up, pitched in, and got us all through the night—and every day since. Very few staff members were called to respond, but many responded on their own and made important contributions during the fire.

We had multiple priorities in the early part of the night. The first and most important priority, was finding everyone who resided at Manchester Apartments. Thanks to the efforts of our Transitional Housing Team, we made steady progress on this through the night, calling veterans and locating them one by one. The fire department made multiple sweeps through the building and believed everyone evacuated safely, but toward the end of the night, we still had 5 veterans unaccounted for.

The second priority was finding emergency shelter for those who were displaced, and our Rapid Rehousing Team stepped in to find a hotel, make reservations, and arrange payment. IndyGo buses were providing shelter from the cool evening, and after the hotel reservations were made, transported all the veterans to temporary shelter at a nearby hotel at approximately 3am.

Humanity and tragedy are often woven tightly together. I was focused on the task at hand during the fire but broke down when one of the fire chiefs told me he had volunteered at HVAF, and he loved what we did to help veterans. I had just enough time to look away, wipe my tears, and get back to it.

There were also so many scary moments… Firefighters were pulled out of the building because it was unstable. Another firefighter told me the whole thing might burn down tonight. And the most heartbreaking of all was the discussion that if we couldn’t locate each resident, a cadaver dog would search the building.

Before we left, I had an opportunity to talk with the veterans and staff. In tragedies like this, words often feel inadequate. I told them all we would get through this, and I’ve repeated that line to myself every day since.

Sunday morning, we began again working to find veterans and all of HVAF breathed a sigh of relief when we accounted for all 48.  3 had been transported for smoke inhalation, but thankfully, everyone was safe.

All of Team HVAF continues to surge to care for the displaced veterans. Our Mental Health and Transitional Housing Teams are at the hotels providing supportive services daily. Our Community Center staff are working to sort donations and prioritize meeting the basic needs of those who lost everything. Everyone on Team HVAF, and sometimes our family members, are volunteering to work to help find permanent housing, stock pantry shelves, and unload donations to ensure we are ready to serve veterans.

The next several days brought fire investigators, insurance investigators, adjusters, and remediation companies. The next several months will bring demolition, reconstruction, and reopening.

For more than 31 years, HVAF has been serving the most vulnerable veterans in our community. With your generous support, we remain open and committed to ending veteran homelessness.