Apartment residents react to devastating fire
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Dozens of residents were evacuated Wednesday afternoon as a fire ravaged an apartment complex in the Southwyck area of Toledo.
The property manager of Tanglewood Apartments said it was mainly families who lived in the destroyed units.
“The residents are wanting to know, asking what happened,” Ashley Smith said. “We’re still trying to come to some understanding of where it started and how it started as well.”
Officials with Toledo Fire & Rescue said it appears that the fire started on a balcony, but they have no official cause for the fire yet.
The surrounding neighborhood contains multiple other apartment complexes. Nearby residents were unsure of when it will be safe for them to go back home late Wednesday.
“Literally the worst fire I’ve ever seen in Toledo,” area resident Leonard Lamb said. “I was thinking someone was just cooking out at first, and then I started to see the black smoke.”
“I turned the TV on and it was live, the building I thought was down the road,” nearby resident Roger Hall said. “I didn’t realize it was right next door. They started pounding on the door and I heard them evacuating us.”
Officials with Tanglewood have not yet established what the next move will be for their residents. But after working with the Red Cross, they’ll at least had a place to sleep Wednesday night.
“Seeing the whole building engulfed is just devastating for these folks. Our heart goes out to them,” Rachel Hepner-Zawodny, executive director of the Northwest Ohio chapter of the American Red Cross said. “They saw everything they work for go up in flames and smoke.”
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