Apartment fire leaves dozens of residents out in sweltering Phoenix heat
PHOENIX - More than two dozen people are out of their homes Saturday night after an apartment fire that broke out in Phoenix near 27th Avenue and Cactus Road.
It happened in the middle of the day when temperatures were hovering right around 115 degrees on July 22.
The aftermath is devastating.
Black smudges. Burt wood. Water stains. And apartments of people and families now without a place to call home.
Alec McGarret lives in the apartment next door with her animals. Willow the Siberian Husky, Rayland the Belgian Malinois, Carl the Great Dane mix and the bearded dragon, Jay.
"It’s really traumatic, really traumatic, you know? It's crazy," Alec said.
Her mom Nancy, who was visiting, smelt the fire before actually seeing it.
"I was sitting in the living room, and I smelled something weird," she said. "I thought it was gas or something that we were smelling, that’s how bad it was, because the whole house started to fill up. A little bit of smoke in there, and I’m like, what is clouding up in here? I have no idea what is clouding up."
Phoenix Fire doesn’t know how it started but believes the flames came from a second-story unit before spreading.
"I came out here, and that’s when I saw all the commotion going on over here, with the fire hoses, and the flames a little bit here and there, and the firemen and everything," Nancy said.
The fire displaced 25 people.
Alec's apartment wasn’t burned, but it’s still left her on her patio in the sweltering heat.
"We can’t go in, so it’s pretty bad," Alec said. "Just a lot of smoke. There’s a lot of stench here."
She's trying to air out the unbearable smell.
Still, she’s grateful she didn’t have to evacuate unlike some of her neighbors.
"I feel bad for them. They shouldn’t have to deal with it," Alec said.
A woman who lived in one of the worst hit units said she’s devastated and says she was away and alerted by a neighbor of the flames.
She’s positive most of her belongings are now gone and is still in shock. The community assistance program is helping her, and other victims.
Map of where the fire started: