Black smoke surrounded Jordan Wood as he made his way to the bedroom window. Choking on the acrid fog, he blindly felt his way to the window pane and punched through the glass. For the first time in what felt like eternity, Wood breathed fresh air.
“I was getting out of that house, even if I had to kick down the wall,” Wood, who graduated from the University in December, said. The 23 year old narrowly escaped with his life on Jan. 8 after a fire trapped him and his girlfriend, Caroline Cavanaugh, in a bedroom of his grandparents’ Fairhope home, which they were visiting.
Earlier, Wood was playing on his phone around 4 a.m. when he heard the screams of his grandfather, James Blevins. He discovered Blevins writhing under blankets completely engulfed in flames, Wood said. He immediately alerted and evacuated Cavanaugh and the Blevinses and is now being hailed as a hero.
“He is definitely a hero,” April Garrett, a family friend, said. “He doesn’t see himself as one, but anybody who hears this [story] will agree that he is a strong and amazing young man.”
James Blevins is confined to a wheelchair and would have been unable to escape the fire without assistance, Garrett said. Amidst a rapidly spreading fire, Wood dragged Blevins outside to safety. Cavanaugh and Wood’s grandmother, Carmen Blevins, were able to exit the home without assistance. Wood said he believes the fire resulted from a nearby space heater.
“If it hadn’t of been for Jordan being there, they probably would have died. There is no way Carmen would have been able to drag him out of the house on her own,” Garrett said.
After checking on his grandparents, Wood noticed Cavanaugh re-enter the burning house in an effort to save their two dogs, still in the house. Refusing to let his girlfriend venture into the burning house alone, Wood promptly followed her.
“The smoke was already bad, but it kept getting worse and worse,” Wood said. “We were screaming for the dogs, and I just knew we had to get out of there or we were going to die.”
The fire herded the two into a bedroom, at which point Wood was forced to break the window so the two could escape. The couple managed to escape through the window, although Wood sustained superficial cuts. Cavanaugh suffered a deep laceration that required several stiches. Both dogs perished in the fire.
James Blevins sustained third-degree burns to his back and feet and underwent surgery Wednesday, Wood said. Carmen Blevins was not injured in the fire. The Blevins are now staying with relatives in the Mobile area. Their home was not covered by insurance, and they lost everything in the fire, Garrett said. Inspired by a need to help, she started an online fundraising campaign using gofundme.com. So far, the site has raised more than $12,000.
“Within an hour, we exceeded our $5,000 goal. I was shocked. I didn’t think we were going to reach the $5,000 limit, but I’m so glad we did. I’m very overwhelmed. And we are still getting donations,” said Garrett, who has since raised the $5,000 goal to $25,000.
Wood’s former brothers from Delta Chi fraternity, Peyton Roberts and Barton Haddad, hosted a fundraiser for the Blevins family Tuesday night at Gallette’s. The event exceeded the original fundraising goal of $1,000, said Roberts and Haddad, who both graduated in December.
“As soon as I found out, I knew we had to do something,” Roberts said. “He’s kind of a hero.”
Gallette’s promised to match any donations made from its employees, which increased the proceeds to more than $3,000, Haddad said. All contributions from the event will be added to Garrett’s fundraising site.
The Fairhope Volunteer Fire Department and the Alabama State Fire Marshal’s office will perform a routine fire investigation as the family recovers, said Assistant State Fire Marshal Scott Pilgreen.
“It’s been great to have all of this support and realize that we have so many friends,” Wood said.
