Yaroslava Kozhayeva was sleeping at 3 a.m. Oct. 20, when suddenly she awoke to the sound of people yelling.

“I listen, many voices,” she said in her Ukrainian accent, retelling the story two days later, Oct. 22. “I’m thinking my neighbors are fighting. I didn’t understand.”

Kozhayeva got up from bed and opened her front door. Thick smoke rushed into her condominium unit. Scared, unsure of what was happening, she closed the door and ran to her balcony. She had inhaled smoke and was having trouble breathing when she saw firefighters in the parking lot.

Wearing only her pajamas, Kozhayeva ran back to her door. When she opened it, she said, she could hear voices but could see nothing through the smoke. She ran out, ran downstairs, ran outside and looked back up at her condominium unit. She saw flames pouring from the building’s roof, just above her balcony where she stood moments earlier.

“I’m OK. God saved my life,” she said as she retold her story in the rain Oct. 22.

After a fire broke out Oct. 20 at the Royal Glen Condominiums, 1188 Royal Glen Drive in Glen Ellyn, the entire B-wing of one of the complex’s buildings was deemed unlivable. That meant Kozhayeva and residents of 29 other units had to find somewhere else to live.

It could take nine months before the wing is livable again, said Jim Plunket, public information officer with the Lombard Fire Department, which was one of 20 neighboring fire departments that assisted in extinguishing the blaze.

Plunket said the cause of the fire is still unknown and there is no reason to suspect foul play. The fire began in a third-floor unit in the center of the wing, he said.

Lida McDaniel, a disaster services caseworker for the Chicago Red Cross, said by the time she arrived in Glen Ellyn at 9 a.m. Oct. 20, most of the displaced residents already had been relocated to the Crown Plaza Hotel.

“People were just in a daze,” she said.

At about 2 p.m. the day of the fire, residents of the condo’s B-wing met and were told they could not return to their homes. McDaniel said about 50 people were at the meeting, and the Red Cross was prepared to provide shelter to anyone who needed it.

“Everybody there, thankfully, had somewhere to stay,” she said.

Kozhayeva said she will stay with her brother.

As she told her story Oct. 22, workers went in and out of the building’s lobby, and residents showed up and talked with one another. Officers from the Glen Ellyn Police Department assisted residents as they returned to their homes to salvage whatever possessions remained.

Kozhayeva said the fire destroyed everything in her unit. Since then, however, coworkers have given her clothing, a gift card and a little bit of money to help her get by.

As people continued to walk in and out of the building, as the rain continued to fall, Kozhayeva spoke without a hint of sadness in her voice.

“Oct. 20, 3 o’clock (a.m.), God give me new life,” she said. “I’m so glad.”

She has nothing, she repeated.

“Nothing. It’s me and my life and my God.”