TAMPA — Video Susana Lay shot when she showed up to Stone Creek Apartments shows flames shooting out of the roof.
She owns some units here and manages others. She says her main concern was everyone’s safety.
“They all just ran for their lives.”
Hillsborough County Fire Rescue says they are still investigating what started the fire in an upstairs unit.
That apartment is destroyed along with the roof.
“We cannot go in at all. It has displaced eight families. Many of them are not well. The majority of them are on medication," said Lay.
That includes one tenant who is a cancer patient and just moved here to get treatment at Moffitt Cancer Center.
“We are definitely devastated by that. We placed him somewhere at one of my other units to help them out. But it’s Christmas and everything is locked and everything is displaced and so it is a shame," said Lay.
The owner of some of the affected units says she didn’t have insurance and doesn’t know what she’ll do next.
But she is thankful that no one was hurt.
“That to me, there’s no money that can substitute that: their wellness and their well-being right now, I’m trying to get them their basic stuff. The toothbrushes, food, all their stuff, except the medicine. All of it," said Lay.
Red Cross volunteers were here and are helping those who need it with supplies, money, and a place to stay.
Today is Giving Tuesday and donations can be made to help people like those displaced by the fire HERE.
