Fire investigators say a couch caught fire from a lit cigarette in a ground floor corner apartment at the Camelot Arms. The flames spread quickly. Four of the eight units in the apartment building were destroyed.
Eliza Asboe woke up and saw the flames in the apartment below. She knocked on doors and got everyone up.
Juanita Fruzzetti has lived at the Camelot Arms apartments for five years. Everything she owned was destroyed in the fire.
"Memories are inside," Fruzzetti says. "I'm just taking it slowly, seeing what I can get accomplished today and then going from there."
While residents face their losses, their neighbors are trying to help them out. They are also reflecting on their blessings.
"It just puts into reality what you can have one minute, and the very next second it's gone. I mean the very next second it's just gone. I mean because, you just look at that. It could have been us," says Elizabeth Mayhall.
Fruzzetti has renter's insurance, but she says that doesn't help replace the personal things.
Some of the other families had no insurance. The apartment management put them up in hotels, and is placing them in other apartments as well.
TheAmerican Red Crosshas supplied the families with vouchers to use for clothing and supplies.
The building is now considered unsafe. The families hope to just recover the things they cannot replace.
Many of the residents are young and connected to the military. They don't have a lot of family in the area to support them. If you would like to help, you can call the American Red Cross at(910) 867-8151.
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