Maplewood fire victim becomes Red Cross volunteer after 2024 apartment blaze

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Becca Bohrer returned from a trip to the dog park in late February 2024 to find her Maplewood apartment building on fire.

“I had just taken Barley to the dog park, neighbor called saying fire going on here, so we came back,” Bohrer recalled

The fire started in the basement storage units, and smoke quickly filled the two-story building. Bohrer walked through the building with firefighters to reach her second-floor apartment.

“I feel like I was in shock when it first happened. I don’t think I realized the magnitude of it until I went into the building,” she said.

Bohrer said her apartment sustained smoke damage throughout. She kept most of her clothes but left behind nearly everything else.

Volunteers from the American Red Cross responded to the scene. The organization’s Greater St. Louis Executive Director, Lakricia Cox, said home fires are the most common disaster the group responds to.

“The number one disaster we respond to every day are home fires, volunteers go out every day to work with people, neighbors work with neighbors to ensure we are extending compassion, care, also provide assistance and resources through that time of need,” Cox said.

Cox said the majority of the Disaster Action Team — known as DAT — are volunteers. The team responds to home fires, floods, and storms to provide comfort and assistance.

For Bohrer, that help included replacing toiletries, assistance with living arrangements, advice on canceling utilities, and a call from a nurse to help replace medications deemed toxic by the fire.

Bohrer has since joined the DAT as a volunteer, responding to fire scenes throughout the St. Louis region. She said she has responded to a house explosion involving a family with teenagers and a recent apartment fire.

“There was a house explosion, family with teenagers, most recently went out to another apartment fire, so that was similar to what I went through,” she said.

Having experienced a fire herself, Bohrer said she knows where to begin when she arrives on the scene.