MANDEVILLE, La. — Flames that took firefighters hours to put out spread across a Mandeville apartment complex Sunday, displacing about 20 families.
"I'm like at a loss for words at this point," Cypress Lake Apartments tenant Ashley Whelehan said.
Whelehan is a nurse and was working on school work in her first-floor apartment when she heard banging.
"I open my door and look to the left, and here comes a big piece of wood falling down, on fire," Whelehan said.
Whelehan said she immediately thought of her pets, including her kitten Isaac who she adopted Saturday.
"As soon as that banging of people knocking on the doors started happening, he ran and hid, and I could not get him from underneath the bed so I had to go because I started smelling the smoke even stronger," Whelehan said.
She had to leave him behind.
Spreading across most of the building, the fire stopped short of burning other nearby apartment complexes. St. Tammany Fire District 4 worked with several other nearby fire departments for hours to put the fire out, according to Mandeville Fire and Emergency Medical Services Public Information Officer Jeremy Windom
"We had about 20 trucks out here, and somewhere between 40 and 50 firefighters were out here battling the blaze," Windom said.
Firefighters rescued four people.
"Two of them were on the balconies, so they had to raise ladders to get them down," Windom said.
No one was injured. Firefighters also looked for Whelehan's cat, but couldn't find him. She's hoped he'd escaped.
"They could only find my guinea pig," Whelehan said.
There are about 20 units in the building that caught fire, displacing the families living there.
"I mean I have school tomorrow. I have to go to the campus in Lacomb," Whelehan said.
Whelehan said she was staying with her aunt after the fire but without her belongings.
"I have to wear scrubs, and I'm like, 'I don't have scrubs now.' So, it sucks. I don't have really anything besides my purse and the clothes I have on me right now," she said.
The Red Cross was on scene to help with resources and finding places to stay.
"I'm hoping we can salvage some of our stuff," Whelehan said.
Meanwhile, St.Tammany residents formed a Facebook group to coordinate relief doantions. 'Cypress Lake Apartments Fire Relief' already has about 500 members from the Mandeville area donating clothes and necessities for those displaced.
Crews are still investigating what started the fire.
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