DETROIT (WXYZ) — Multiple families are left without their homes to sleep in this holiday weekend after an apartment fire broke out Thursday morning at the Alden Towers in Detroit.
It spread through seven units on the 6th floor.
Carlee Drouillar was trapped inside her apartment on the floor at 7 a.m. when black smoke began to envelope the building.
"My neighbor was yelling down that there was a fire and call 911," said Drouillar. "I open my door to see the issue and the whole hallway was filled with smoke by that point."
She told us she closed her door and began to put down wet towels by the door with her roommate.
They were standing by an open window when they saw Detroit Firefighters arrive.
In regards to the firefighter who saved them and gave them an oxygen mask, Drouillar said; "He was my hero personally, he’s over there, tears in his eye, having water, the smoke on his face."
Drouillar is one of the three people Detroit Firefighters saved from the fire, two were treated for smoke inhalation and though thankfully no one died, some like Consuelo Mingo lost a great deal.
"Everything that I worked hard for is totally gone," Mingo told us, "Burnt, gone, demolished."
Mingo said she was dropping her daughter off at school when she got a call to come back home, her apartment unit was on fire.
At one point, she was allowed to briefly see her unit and shared, "I couldn’t even walk all the way in. As soon as you get to the floor, it just looks like a nightmare, blackness everywhere."
For those whose units are impacted by the fire, Consuelo tells us that Red Cross has offered to put them up at a rec center with cots.
Consuelo told us she's not sure that will work for herself and her daughter.
When we interviewed Consuelo she still had not had the chance to tell her daughter about everything they had lost.
If you would like to reach out to Consuelo, you can reach her at consuelomingo743@gmail.com.
