Mothers Mary Ann Walker and B.J. Loudermilk came to Salisbury for the weekend to see “Godspell,” a play both their sons had a hand in.
But after seeing the play Saturday night the women weren’t expecting to get wake-up calls from their sons Sunday morning as well.
B.J. Loudermilk was staying with relatives in Newton when her son, David, called on her cell phone to say his dorm was on fire.
She left Newton immediately and arrived in Salisbury about 5:30 a.m.
The fire was already out, but the smoke was still pouring out the windows.
Some of the male students in the dorm told her there were several different fires going on throughout the night.
David Loudermilk lived in the bottom floor of Foil House, and his room didn’t have any damage.
She said that when she got there, college officials had shepherded all of the Foil House into the Cannon Student Center.
“He and Bob (Walker) were sharing a pair of shoes,” B.J. Loudermilk said, adding that they were wrapped in blankets. College officials then took them the Hampton Inn and only allowed the students to go back into the damaged dorm Sunday afternoon to get a few personal belongings.
“They were traumatized all yesterday with what’s going on and ‘what are we going to do?’ ” she said.
Loudermilk said she was impressed with the way that the college handled the tragedy, from the first smell of smoke until now.
“It’s not just a job, they care for these people,” she added.
“Ithink they are going to try to move them (the boys) back into the stream of life” within the next few days, Loudermilk predicted.
When she got there, she said that all she wanted to do was find her son.
“You want to touch your son and say ‘you’re OK.’ I wanted to make sure he was all right,” said Loudermilk.
Mary Ann Walker’s son Bob is a friend of David Loudermilk and also stays in Foil House.
“It was a brutal day,” Mary Ann Walker, who lives in Marlton, N.J., said.
When she got there, like B.J.Loudermilk, all she saw was the smoke pouring out of the dorm.
“It was just really upsetting to see your son’s dorm up in smoke with fire coming out of the windows,” she said.
When she saw all of the guys from the dorm huddled and staring with shocked faces, she was devastated.
“As a mom, I just wanted to comfort them and give them all a big hug.”
She said her son’s room was as far away from the fire as it could get, but that he was still affected.
“He saw the young man that was on fire,” she said, and was shocked by his wounds.
Like Loudermilk, Mary Ann Walker was impressed with the way college administrators and staff handled the fire.
“They were just so aware of the needs,” she said. “By 4:30 (a.m.), they had hotel reservations for the kids.
“... They’ve got nothing but the clothes on their backs. ... It was a growing up experience in a lot of ways, unfortunately.”
Contact Joanie Morris at 704-797-4264 or jmorris@salisburypost.com
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