'I just thank God every day'

Devon Straub had big plans for Easter.

Two months after she moved into a rented house in St. Louis Park, life seemed to have jelled for the 24-year-old mother of three. She'd saved some money and gotten some furniture. She bought eggs to dye and eggs with candy in them. She had planned to go to church on Sunday and have an Easter egg hunt for the kids.

But after a long day on March 14, Straub felt ill. She took a painkiller, lay down on her couch and fell asleep. Her two oldest children, 6-year-old Janiyah and 2-year-old Jerry, were asleep upstairs with two cousins. One-year-old Devin apparently crawled onto the couch to sleep next to his mom.

Straub had forgotten the bubbling pot on the gas stove in the kitchen. The next thing she knew, the smoke alarm was screeching and all she could see was black smoke.

The March 15 fire turned her week into a nightmare.

Devin has been in intensive care at Hennepin County Medical Center for a week, receiving treatment for smoke inhalation. Straub was hospitalized for three days. Janiyah and her cousins escaped the fire and ran to a nearby home, summoning help.

Gratitude amid loss

"It's been a blessed week for all of us," she said. "I can look at my baby, my niece and my family and see them. They're still there. My son is doing good. He's a big fighter."

She spent most of last week at HCMC, first as a patient, then hovering near Devin's hospital crib. The little boy's airway had swollen nearly shut. Sedated and intubated, he slept in a darkened nook in pediatric intensive care as a ventilator breathed for him. Doctors gave him steroids and other drugs to reduce swelling, but a week after the fire, Devin was still in serious condition.

Straub grew up in Minneapolis, one of nine children. She said she never knew her father. She dropped out of high school and got married. Her husband is incarcerated.

She moved to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina but last summer returned to Minnesota, leaving most of her possessions behind. It was just too difficult to live in the ravaged city with kids, she said.

She and her children moved in with her sister, Monique Taylor of Hopkins, and then to St. Louis Park in January. Straub said she felt like her life was regaining some equilibrium when the fire came.

Except for Devin, the children who were in the house that night are fine. Janiyah and Taylor's son, 7-year-old Kevin Robinson, have been squabbling over who was the bigger hero that night. After a few sleepless nights, Kevin is happy again and reveling in being called a "superhero" by classmates at his Minneapolis school.

Kids got help

Kevin, Janiyah, Jerry and cousin Laila Anderson, 3, woke early Saturday when the alarm sounded, ran downstairs and saw the stove on fire. Kevin said he tried to wake his aunt. He, Janiyah and Laila ran outside, where neighbors heard their frightened voices and called 911.

A police officer found 2-year-old Jerry inside the burning house, near a door. Firefighters rescued Straub and Devin. Straub awoke in an ambulance. "They asked me where my kids were at," she said. "I was saying, 'Please get my kids out of there.'"

After she was released from the hospital, Straub, her children and another of her sisters crowded into Taylor's townhouse for a couple of nights, four people sleeping in a queen-size bed. Taylor bought new clothes for the children with money she'd received from the Red Cross. Straub began spending nights at HCMC to be near her son.

She is thankful for the sisters who are supporting her. She didn't think any more about celebrating Easter.

"I just want to be with my kids," she said. "I just thank God every day. I can't do nothing else but move on."