Annandale resident lost everything in a fire

Kitty Dragonera wouldn’t be alive today if she hadn’t gotten up at 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom on Nov. 23.

When she opened the bedroom door, she found the carpet and couch in the living room were on fire. By the time the smoke detector went off, flames were shooting up the walls.

She and her husband, Matthew, managed to escape with non-life-threatening injuries. They’ve been effectively homeless since the fire, as their building at Talltree South Condominium on Americana Drive in Annandale has been condemned.

Kitty is grateful to be alive and appreciates all the help she’s gotten from friends and strangers, but faults the condo’s management for its “callous and cold” treatment of the displaced residents.

Residents can’t go back

Because the fire investigators found asbestos in the building, the nine families who live there are prohibited from getting into their apartments to get their possessions. They haven’t been told when they’ll be able to move back – only that it could be six months to a year.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but a fire investigator told Kitty it was probably caused by a malfunction in an electrical outlet or extension cord.

When Kitty discovered the fire in the middle of the night, the flames were already blocking the door. She woke up her husband and they jumped 17 feet from the balcony at the rear of their apartment.

The fire alarm in the lobby didn’t go off. So Kitty ran around to the front of the building and banged on her neighbors’ doors to wake them up.

That’s when she suffered smoke inhalation, burns on her face and lungs, and singed hair. She spent three days at MedStar Washington Hospital in D.C. She still has difficulty breathing. Matthew sprained his ankle and suffered a small burn on his ear. They are both traumatized.

“I couldn’t leave them,” Kitty says of her neighbors. One has a new baby, and another is disabled. She says they’ve all become like family since she moved in six years ago.

Before jumping from their apartment, Kitty had tried to rescue her beloved cat, Bella, but wasn’t able to find her in the midst of the smoke and flames. When she was in the hospital, she learned that Bella had been cremated without her permission.

Kitty and Matthew stayed with friends for a while and are now renting a place in Lorton “until we figure something out,” she says.

Condo managers are “heartless”

The owner of the condo they’ve been renting at Tall Trees South has been wonderful; she’s been trying to get answers for them, Kitty says. But the Talltree South HOA and Cardinal Management Group are not responding to residents’ concerns.

At a Dec. 4 Zoom meeting with residents affected by the fire, the HOA board said the displaced families still have to pay HOA fees, mortgages, and utility bills.  

They didn’t give families contact information or a timeline on when they’ll be able to get back into their homes.

Although nothing in Kitty’s bedroom was damaged, everything in there has to be destroyed because it’s been contaminated by asbestos.

She hasn’t been allowed to go back and get her personal belongings and fears the wedding ring she left on the bedside table was stolen.

The management team left the keys inside a lock box at the front door, and with so many workers going in and out, she says, “there’s a high probability of theft.”

Related story: Friend seeks help for Annandale fire victim

“We had a lot of safety concerns and issues,” Kitty says. “They placed the blame on residents, telling us we’re responsible for having smoke detectors. But they dodged the question about why the building’s fire alarm didn’t go off.”

“They’re putting money over people’s lives. They were so heartless. Maybe if I died, they would get a sprinkler system,” she says.

“Their unwillingness to provide any reasonable time frame or solutions has left us feeling helpless and abandoned.”’

A life upended

“The fire turned my whole life upside down,” she says. Living expenses and replacing basic necessities have depleted her savings.  

She lost everything in the fire, including photos, important documents, clothes, car keys that cost $300 to replace, a laptop, and school materials. She didn’t even have a pen to write down a phone number.

“It breaks my heart. All I have is memories now,” Kitty says. “Starting over from nothing is not just devastating; it’s disorienting, overwhelming, and deeply painful.” 

She’s one semester away from earning a bachelor’s degree in health science at ECPI University in Manassas. She returned to her full-time job on Nov. 5 as a store manager.

The Red Cross gave displaced tenants a small stipend for a hotel and contacts for nonprofits. Her friend, Deveri White, set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for living expenses, which Kitty greatly appreciates. And she is grateful to everyone who donates.

“I’m so stressed out,” Kitty says. “I still have bills to pay, I’m emotionally damaged, I don’t have a place to put a tree up, and I don’t have my cat.”  

She learned at the tenant meeting that the complex has a history of fires. The management has harassed people for having plants on their balconies but refused to talk about the vandalism, thefts, shootings, and rodents in the community. She thinks the fire might have been caused by mice inside the walls gnawing on electric wires.

“The fire revealed a deeply troubling reality: Our homes were never safe to begin with. After the fire, we discovered that the buildings we called home contained asbestos, a silent but deadly threat to our health,” she says. “The fact that we were unknowingly living in such hazardous conditions is unacceptable, and it highlights the negligence that has put profits and convenience above our safety.”

She urges the apartment management to:

• implement mandatory and transparent fire safety inspections;
• take immediate action to address health hazards like asbestos in residential buildings;
• take accountability for crises and clearly communicate updates to residents; and
• have policies to protect displaced residents from financial exploitation while they rebuild their lives.

Kitty is glad she risked her life to save her neighbors. “I’m just lucky to be here. Life is so precious,” she says. “I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”