Families displaced after fire erupts at Gwinnett County apartments
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - More than two dozen families are desperate for help as they're now without a home following a massive apartment fire in Norcross.
It's easy to see the blue sky clear through this side of a now scorched apartment building on Sunrise Village in Norcross.
Yellow caution tape and a chain-link fence now bars neighbors from getting too close to the unstable structure.
Plumes of smoke covered the area as a fire erupted from one of the units early Sunday morning.
Shaneka Fennell says in less than two minutes, she saw flames, grabbed her kids, and tried to help her neighbors.
"I was screaming 'get out, get out,'" she remembered.
Other neighbors say their smoke detectors never went off.
Thankfully, no one was hurt, but Fennell says her family--which includes a 3 and 9-year-old-- lost everything.
"My daughter got into the car and just started sobbing," she said.
Fennell says everything--toys, important documents, clothes, and furniture-- all went up in flames.
Gwinnett investigators say the fire likely started from improper storage of flammable liquids near a hot water heater.
Fenell just got word Monday that her building will provide another unit-- at least temporarily-- by the end of the week, but she says that doesn't account for everything else they've lost.
She says she has one message to anyone who doesn't have an emergency plan in place.
"Get renters insurance," she said. "I never in a million years thought this would happen to me."
To help the victims, click here.
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