UFC bantamweight Macy Chiasson is lucky to be alive after a crane crashed into her Dallas apartment complex on Sunday.
One woman was killed and five others were injured — including two in critical condition — after heavy winds from a thunderstorm caused the crane to collapse into the Elan City Lights apartment complex located in downtown Dallas.
Chiasson revealed to “TMZ Live” that she just narrowly escaped the worst of the accident.
“I had just been home for about 20 minutes. I entered the car garage, I parked my car, I went into my apartment. I had my dog with me…I was only there for about 20 minutes,” Chiasson said. “It almost sounded like a little bit of construction going on, because my backyard is where all the construction is going on right now. I live about 100 feet away from where they’re building another structure.
“I was like, ‘There’s no way that they’re doing construction right now on a Sunday.’ All of a sudden when I said that to myself I heard a loud boom,” she continued. “And I could hear whatever it was falling through the ceiling floor by floor. Once I heard that I called my dog…I didn’t have any shoes on, I just had the clothes on my back. Fortunately my phone and my dog’s leash was right next to me, so I just grabbed it and we ran out. Me and a few other people were running and we were just stepping on glass. There were just glass shards everywhere.”
North Texans who called the Elan City Lights Apartments their home are being forced out, this after Sunday’s deadly crane collapse in Dallas. https://t.co/Nwcp1QCkNj pic.twitter.com/Gq5omkGONK
— CBSDFW (@CBSDFW) June 11, 2019
Chiasson recalls a chaotic scene as she and other residents scrambled to escape the carnage, which ultimately left the building “totally unusable for residential purposes.”
“At that moment I had to pick up my dog and run into the lobby. No one was prepared for anything,” she said. “People were in their underwear. They had several people that were completely covered in debris and dust, just bleeding. It was terrible.”
Now Chiasson will have to work to pick up the pieces, as virtually all of her possessions were lost in the carnage. According to Dallas-based CBS 11 News, Elan City Lights management will refund all leaseholders deposits and June rent and will provide an additional $500 to put toward a new apartment.
“I’ve completely lost everything. I don’t have anything,” Chiasson said. “I literally have the shirt and shorts that I have on. I have nothing but my dog. Everything’s gone. As of right now I don’t have a birth certificate, passport, anything. I don’t have any identification. I have to go back to New Orleans and pretty much rebuild until I can get back to Dallas.”
After winning Season 28 of “The Ultimate Fighter” at featherweight, Chiasson moved to bantamweight to earn back-to-back TKO victories over Gina Mazany and Sarah Moras.