ATLANTA — Residents had the chance to dig through what's left of North High Ridge Apartments in the Poncy-Highland neighborhood.
Eight months ago, a fire tore through the historic Atlanta property.
Friday, former tenants tried to find anything left in the rubble on North Avenue before the land was cleared. It was a sad reminder, for them, of what once was.
Emily Jewell lived there for 12 years. She was able to recover a skateboard. She's spent days digging.
"We've been scrambling to get stuff," Jewell said.
Austin Dryden lived there for seven years. He had some friends come to help him look.
"Even if I find nothing, knowing that I tried it, I can close the book on that chapter, I guess. I can get some kind of closure," Dryden said.
Jewell said former residents have been waiting months to see if there's anything left to salvage. She explains what happened to her unit.
"The fire got up to us," Jewell said. "And the roof caved in, but it was mostly pristine in there beyond the water damage. So, we came back thinking we could maybe, potentially, get a cherry picker or something once everybody signed off on it and just reach in because one wall was down to the studs...I was thinking maybe we could scoop things out. And we came back the next day and they were demolishing it. And we didn't know why."
Jewell said they were told that Friday was the last day to dig through the ashy pile—the conclusion to a long eight months. Twenty-eight residents were forced out after a massive fire gutted the property. Crews battled flames for hours.
"I saw how much of my stuff did burn," Dryden said. "I saw blue flames coming from my bedroom."
Since then, residents have been trying to rebuild from scratch.
"My job gave me a week off so I could kind of do stuff, but then at a certain point, life goes on," Dryden said.
Dryden breaks down what's been going on since April.
"It was this slow process of replacing literally everything," Dryden said. "I had an entire lifetime of stuff in there. And I left with the clothes on my back."
Dryden said his friends supported him so he could get some new furniture.
"Nothing of mine is older than six months now," Dryden said.
Dryden said he didn't have insurance, but the Red Cross gave him a few hundred bucks and an online fundraiser helped. He and Jewell couch-surfed for weeks until they could find new homes.
Jewell had insurance but said it didn't suffice.
"It's enough to help us buy some furniture and electronics and stuff, but it's not touching the full value of what we had there," Jewell said.
And now, they say goodbye to the place they once called home.
"Buying a house is at the top of the list right now," Jewell said. "I don't want to do this ever again."
She offers this advice to others who live in an apartment complex.
"Make sure that your insurance amount matches what you actually have," Jewell said.
A representative from Atlanta Fire Rescue said this fire is still under investigation.