CORAL SPRINGS, FLA. (WSVN) - Six families have been displaced after a fire ripped through a Coral Springs apartment building.
Coral Springs Fire Rescue crews responded to the two-story apartment building located along Northwest 35th Court and 80th Avenue, at around 4 a.m, Tuesday.
7Skyforce flew over the scene where smoke could be seen coming from the roof of the building and firefighters could be seen spraying the building with water.
According to officials, all residents in the building had to be evacuated. Three of the six apartments have been deemed unlivable, and two of them were said to have been completely destroyed.
Other units suffered water and smoke damage.
As a result, 24 people have been displaced. Luckily, no one was injured.
Kim Forsyth, who lives in one of the units with her son, said she turned on the heater for about an hour to keep warm, but wasn’t able to turn it off afterwards.
“My kids were shivering, and I had three jackets on,” she said. “It was too cold, so I turned the heat on to get the chill out of the house for about an hour, and then I went to turn it off, and it wouldn’t turn off.
She went on to say that a short time later she smelled smoke, so she woke up her boyfriend.” He said, ‘There’s smoke upstairs,’ so we got the kids out, and I called 911, and I opened up the door where the heater unit is, and I saw the back wall, glowing orange. I could’ve grabbed the fire extinguisher, but 911 wouldn’t let me. They told me to get my kids, and get out of the house.”
7News spoke with Timothy Wallace, a resident at the apartment complex, who said turning on the heater is a normal occurrence.
“Everybody over here, whenever they turn on their heaters, they smell a bad smell but try to pay it no mind,” Wallace said. “Unfortunately, that’s what happened to them.”
The fire left her home uninhabitable.
“I kept looking up, and I saw my closet catch on fire,” Forsyth said. “The whole inside wall of my closet, my clothes, my TV exploded, my sliding glass door exploded — the flames were rolling on the whole ceiling, rolling out the doors.”
Ten-year-old Jacob was among most of the residents who had no time to grab any important belongings.
“This is possibly the most saddest thing that’s ever happened to me,” Jacob said.
Fortunately, everybody made it out alive, including a few pet bunnies.
The Forsyth family, meanwhile, is wondering how they will start over again.
“You start thinking about everything, and it starts hitting you, and you don’t realize it at first,” Forsyth said. “When you start realizing everything you have lost that you cannot replace, that’s what hurts the most. The pictures. His baby pictures. Everything is gone. We can’t replace that. You can’t replace the memories.”
The State Fire Marshal and fire department spent the morning investigating the cause.
The Red Cross is currently on scene to help provide a temporary shelter for the displaced residents.
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