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Residents of an apartment complex that caught fire overnight came back to the scene today, looking for anything left of their homes.
That fire swept through a section of the Eagle's Landing Apartments in Salt Lake City, leaving eight families, several with young children, homeless.
Six families completely lost their homes, and three others have apartments with major smoke and water damage.
When residents arrived this morning to see the damage, many of them said they were just thankful they got out alive.
Cesar Sanchez said, "I just looked out, and my balcony was on fire." Yesterday Sanchez lived on the second floor of the apartment building. Today all that remains is a burned out shell. "All that stuff I had on my coffee table, some movies, stuff like that, memories, that's all gone. "
Neighbors who saw the fire start last night say the cause was a barbecue left burning on the balcony of one of the lower apartments. They say it only took a matter of minutes before it got out of control.
Neighbor Paul Hackney said, "The railing caught fire, and then it went to the railing above it, and then to the next railing, and then caught on the roof."
Don Reifsnider said, "I looked out my front door and saw the flames shooting out the top of the roof about 50-60 feet high in the air."
Those neighbors quickly went door to door evacuating the building. Bob Sharp said, "At first they thought it was a joke, until we started yelling ‘Fire!' And then everybody grabbed their babies and got out."
One man who lived in the apartments ran back into the burning building three times. First he rushed his 9-month-old son out. The second time he got his wife, who had collapsed, and helped her out. As he did that, he heard screams in the building and ran back inside a third time. He didn't see anyone, and then he jumped out an upstairs window. He had minor injuries, as did his wife. They were transported to LDS Hospital, where they were treated and released.
By the time firefighters had arrived, everyone was out and crews got to work. Firefighters say it took about an hour to put out the fire; in the meantime, the American Red Cross stepped in to help the families.
Susan Thomas with the American Red Cross, said, "We put blankets on people, we get clothes immediately to people, we get food in their tummies, meals, and we make sure they have a place to stay."
The families were put up in a nearby hotel by the apartment management. When several returned this morning, those who could go back to their apartments did and got right to work.
"These things can be fixed, buildings can be repaired, but you can't give back a life, and I'm just glad nobody got hurt last night," Hackney said.
As for the estimated cost of this fire, firefighters say damages are about a half a million dollars.
Two cats were killed in the fire.
E-mail: aadams@ksl.com
E-mail: spark@ksl.com
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