But the tables were turned on the city resident after a fire Thursday night at the two-family Beechmont Avenue home where she lived with five of her seven children.

In fact, over the past 20 years, Johnson has been a foster mother to more than 50 children.

As she recounted the fire Friday afternoon, Johnson frequently fell apart. Her voice broke, her eyes filled with tears, and it was often difficult for her to talk. Neither she nor her children were injured in the fire, but they lost most of their belongings.

"I just couldn't believe it," Johnson said. "I couldn't believe it. I couldn't sleep. I can't eat."

Johnson and two of her children, Frances Johnson, 20, who lived in the Beechmont Avenue apartment with her mother, and Kathleen Johnson, 37, who lives elsewhere in Bridgeport, were at the Mid-Fairfield County Chapter of the American Red Cross Friday afternoon.

They received some emergency help from the agency, including funds to buy clothing, food and other items. The Johnsons are lucky they have family in the city who took them in. Not all people displaced by disasters are so fortunate, said Carol Banner, spokesman for the local Red Cross chapter.

However, Banner said, Johnson's luck ended there. "It was a bad fire," Banner said. "They lost everything."

Florence Johnson said she and her family were out on Thursday night. When they came home, they didn't realize anything was wrong, until they heard a smoke alarm. The fire was discovered in the bedroom, where Johnson's son sleeps.

"Everybody ran out of the house but me," Johnson said. "I was looking for my pocketbook."

As she searched, Frances frantically called for her to get out of the house. After a few minutes of searching, Florence Johnson gave up on finding her purse and fled the building as well.

Firefighters from the Engine 12 firehouse responded to the blaze and extinguished it. Capt. Richard Thode said the call came in at 8:16 p.m., and the fire took roughly an hour to put out.

Thode said the house was "hit hard by the fire," but it wasn't destroyed. Still, Johnson seemed to have little hope of ever moving back in. Johnson, who is a crossing guard at Madison School in Bridgeport, said she's now looking for a new home for herself and her children.

Johnson said she became a foster mother after meeting a woman during a job interview. The woman asked Johnson if she had ever considered being a foster mom. Johnson said no, but that she would think about it.

Shortly after, she went to the Department of Children and Families, and gave them the name of the woman she'd spoken to — but they said they'd never heard of her. Johnson said she took that as a sign, as if fate had come to her in the form of this woman and drew her to be a foster mom.

"This is my calling," Johnson said.

She adopted eight of her foster children. Two have since died. All five of the children living with her in the Beechmont home were adopted. Frances is the oldest, and the youngest is 8 years old. Johnson has one other grown adopted daughter, who she's living with now, and Kathleen, who is her biological child.

Kathleen Johnson said many people have stepped in to help her mother, including members of the family's church, The Bridge in Bridgeport. On Friday, the Rev. Scott Warner, Bridge's pastor, sent an e-mail out to members of the church and others in the community, asking them to help the Johnsons.

So far, Warner said, response to the e-mail has been "really positive. Lots of people want to know what size her kids are."

Fire officials are still investigating the blaze, which heavily damaged a second-floor bedroom and burned a section of the roof.

Two men living on the first floor were also forced to find temporary shelter, but refused help from the Red Cross, Banner said.

If you want to help the Johnson family, visit The Bridge's Web site, www.godsbridge.com, or call Warner at 258-0507. To give to the American Red Cross disaster fund, which helps families like the Johnsons recover from fires and other tragedies, call 1-800-319-9935.