Less than a month after moving in, 26-year-old Chance Jackson lost almost everything he owns in the Harbour Landing condo fire the day after Christmas in New Haven.
“It wasn’t until I heard the fire trucks and it made it something surreal,” Jackson said in an exclusive interview with NBC Connecticut. “I looked out the window and the lady screamed get out the house now, the roof is on fire.”
Jackson, who did not have renter’s insurance, returned to the condo complex Wednesday for the first time since the day after the fire.
“Hurts,” he said, looking up at the shattered window to his old bedroom. “We worked so hard to get this, and it’s been taken away from me.”
At first, Jackson said he wasn’t too concerned by the smell of smoke.
“Usually, we do smell like burning fire wood,” he explained. “Everybody’s unit has a fire place in it.”
But then he stepped into his bathroom.
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“My whole bathroom is covered in black smoke and I’m like oh my god my whole unit is on fire,” Jackson said.
Jackson is one of 21 people displaced by the fire that destroyed 13 units at the condo complex by New Haven’s City Point. Nobody was seriously hurt.
“I got my laptop, my iPad and that was about it,” he said. “I’m just happy to be alive you know.”
In the weeks since the fire, an organization Jackson volunteers with has started to help him move forward after the devastating fire.
“Here is a guy that was back at work the day after the fire,” said Jack Walker, a volunteer with the Pizza People.
Once a month, Walker, Jackson and other volunteers distribute pizza from Modern Apizza and other items to the less fortunate and homeless on the New Haven Green.
“We are a group that’s all about helping others and we wanted to do something for Chance,” Walker said.
After seeing the photos Jackson posted on his destroyed condo on Facebook, Walker launched a fundraising campaign.
“This is a guy who lost everything,” Walker said. “We’re about raising as much money as we can to replace some of the things he lost.”
As Jackson looks to relocate form his mom’s couch into a new home, he can’t thank the Pizza People enough.
“Humbling to be honest,” he said. “I don’t know where I’d be without them.”
Next Tuesday is the first time this year the Pizza People will hand out toiletries, clothes and of course, pizza, on the New Haven Green.
Jackson plans to be there with them.
