SAN ANTONIO — A South Side ISD teacher is spending time away from the classroom after he lost everything in a fire.
Only the walls of the Davis family residence remain after their mobile home and barn turned to ash. They had lived there for two decades.
Now, John Davis and his wife, Janice, are taking a leave of absence from work while they clean up what’s left of their home in the 25000 block of Sand Cliff Drive on the south side.
Earlier this month, on Sunday, April 3, John fired up the grill to prepare dinner.
"The wind channeled through there like crazy. I could hear it. It just came up, whoosh!” he recalled.
When Davis looked out the window, he saw embers from the grill blowing toward his barn, which soon caught on fire.
"It had picked up the barbeque and plastered it against the barn wall," he said. "I freaked out."
Davis said he tried to extinguish the fire with the garden hose, but it was no match for the fast-moving flames.
A short time later, Bexar County sheriff's deputies arrived and ordered Davis to stay off the property for his safety.
"The place was just a blaze. It was just very overwhelming,” said Janice Davis, who was working at the time their home caught fire.
The winds that day propelled the fire's growth so fast, she said, that the flames jumped the fence and moved toward the street.
The family says they're thankful fire crews stopped the blaze from moving next door.
John and the family cat, Emma, were the only ones home at the time the fire started.
“[Emma] was in the fire for two and a half hours and [emergency crews] found her under the collapsed roof,” Janice Davis said. “The roof had collapsed to most of the rear section of the house."
Emma recovered quickly.
John Davis suffered burns to his legs, neck and arms, but isn't in pain. Instead, he's anxious to get back to South Side High School where he works in the CTE department as an auto shop teacher.
"I know this is devastating. It's the worst thing that's ever happened in my life, but it's in my DNA, it's in my blood to be back with my students,” he said. “I really miss being in the classroom, in the shop."
Right before the fire, he began teaching auto shop classes to south-side parents after school. He hopes to resume the classes when he returns, possibly next week if cleared by his doctor.
Kitchenware like plates and cutlery could be salvaged from the fire, but not much else.
A GoFundMe has been organized to raise money to help the Davis Family rebuild.
“I am very thankful, grateful and I feel really blessed at the community support, the love from our church, the school, neighbors,” Janice Davis said.
John Davis said some of his former South Side ISD students helped install a telephone pole on their property to help them get by.
"Former students dug a trench 5 feet deep, 5 feet down and took that telephone poll, put it in there,” he said. “Unbelievable, these guys!"
During cleanup, the Davis family found a cross inside one of the rooms of the home. None of them recognized it, and they believe it could belong to someone else.
Jenn, John and Janice’s daughter, has since hung the cross above the back door.
The Red Cross and the family's insurance company put the Davis family in a hotel in the days following the fire. The family is now staying temporarily at a friend's home.
If you'd like to help, the family could use any assistance cleaning up. Also of immediate need:
- A washing machine (a used one or someone who could repair theirs).
- Bottled water.
- Ice for the cooler.
- Demolition bags.
- Hazmat-like suits to wear during cleanup.
Since the fire, both John and Janice have taken a leave of absence from work, so no paychecks are coming in. Any donations to the GoFundMe would be helpful.
The family’s goal, after cleanup and demolition of the existing structure, is to build a new home on their property.
Janice Davis is also looking to meet the firefighters who rescued Emma, so she can thank them personally.
“Blessings come disguised. It could be the Lord just wiped our slate clean and said, 'This was just too much for you. Let's start over a little simpler,'" John Dais said. "That's going to be our humble step and we will conduct our future a lot simpler."