ATLANTA — An apartment building caught fire Thursday night in Atlanta on Howell Place SW leaving several families without a home and their belongings in an instant.
"I'm a single parent with four boys, that's all we had. Everything we had and we lost it all," apartment resident Marion Anderson said.
As of Friday morning, fire crews are still working to put out hotspots at the West End apartment complex.
The fire department said eight apartments in all were damaged with some almost completely destroyed but no injuries were reported.
The Red Cross said they assisted 14 people from three displaced families on the scene. They said a fourth family had been out of town "who will connect with the Red Cross upon their return."
"Everybody lost everything, I'm glad everybody made it out— my daughter, my grandkids," Bridgette Menefve said, who rushed to help her family during the fire.
The worst damage is in the upstairs units, when firefighters were initially forced to evacuate their crews because the flames were so heavy, Atlanta Fire Rescue said it a tweet.
"Everybody got out but, you know, people lost their things. Precious things that cannot get replaced at the end of the day but you got away with your life," Yvette Manuel said, who helped another resident escape the fire.
A neighbor said earlier in the day, a tree fell across a power line, which prompted power crews to respond. However, it is unclear at this time if the fire is linked to that situation.
The exact cause of the fire is still unknown at this time.