Lila, Yaya and Nadja Johnson. Photo by Carol Tannenhauser.

By Carol Tannenhauser

It was Friday February 24, just before 6 p.m. Nadja Johnson, 45, and her daughters, Lila, 6, and Yasmin (Yaya), 4, were in their second-floor rental apartment – directly above Jacob’s Pickles – on Amsterdam Avenue, between 84^th and 85^th streets. “We were watching Pocahontas and Mommy was making dinner,” Lila said. “Then, Daddy called Mommy that there was a fire in the building.”

“He had just picked up the laundry on the next block,” Nadja said. “He told me to take the girls and leave. I said, ‘Lila, Yaya, there’s a fire in the building. We have to go right now!’ They said, ‘No, Mommy. We’re watching!’ Then, Yaya said, ‘Take the iPad, Lila! Take the iPad!” I took the backpack where I keep our documents: passports, birth certificates, everything.” “Then, we went outside and saw all the fire trucks coming,” Lila said.

Photo by Alanna Campbell.

Thirty-nine units brought 170 firefighters, who battled the blaze for three hours before containing it. The Johnsons stood in front of the building, watching. The fire was sparked by an electrical cord, according to FDNY; seven people were injured.

Photo by Cody Pope.

“The Red Cross came,” Nadja said. “They gave us a $500 card to help with food and things we needed right away. The city offered us a shelter in the Bronx. We work here; the girls study here; to come from a shelter in the Bronx would create more problems. They said, ‘If you say no, that’s it. We cannot help you anymore.’”

That’s when the community stepped in. The parents of their daughters’ classmates at the Metropolitan Montessori School (MMS), on 85^th Street, between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, said, “Don’t go to a shelter. You have us.” For the next three weeks, the Johnsons stayed with one family after another. “That’s how we managed,” Nadia said. “They also organized a gofundme for us. I don’t know how it works. I think I’m still in shock.

“The first week after the fire, I was definitely in shock,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘Oh, I’m strong,’ but, then, when I went to the apartment, I saw my life, my memories, washed away. The firemen had to break the walls and pull everything down. There was water damage and mold. The girls lost almost all their books. We lost our computer.”

The apartment before the fire.

And after.

“Afterwards, I was sitting in front of the apartment building on this black plastic bag, crying. I couldn’t stop crying. I loved my home. It was small, so I wanted it to be nice and pretty and clean. Then, when it was the opposite and I had no home, it was just too much.”

Now, she realizes all is not lost, although the Johnsons have no renter’s insurance, she works only part-time as a medical interpreter (she’s Brazilian and speaks Portuguese), and her husband, Byron, is currently transitioning between jobs. “Our financial situation is very delicate right now,” she said. “I love New York, I really do. But, sometimes, the city can be very cruel when you’re not rich.”

Not this time.

“A couple from the girls’ school has a huge house and, on the street level, they have a one-bedroom apartment that no one was using and they just offered it to us,” Nadja said. “We arrived three days ago. We can have it through half of June. It’s perfect for now. And they refuse to let us pay!”

They also prefer to remain anonymous.

“We still have some hope in this time that is so crazy now,” Nadja said. “That hope is in the kindness of people.”

“And clean laundry!” she laughed. “The good thing is, my husband went to pick up the laundry. It was two bags. That really helped. At least we had our basic clothes. We were lucky.”

E’s Bar, which is still closed, has also set up a Gofundme fundraiser for the victims and will donate the first night’s register to victims once it reopens. And Jacob’s Pickles plans to hold a fundraiser on April 26 at Maison Pickle, where it continues to serve food from the Jacob’s menu. We will have more on those fundraisers as they approach. Let us know if you have information on other victims.