• :
  • Member Center
  • :
  • Make This Your Home Page
  • :
  • Special Offers




TOP STORIES

Red Cross helps elderly residents displaced by mid-rise apartment fire

12:48 PM CST on Tuesday, November 27, 2007

By Adrienne M. Cody, Rucks Russell and Karla Barguiarena / 11 News

Karla Barguiarena's Tuesday Noon update | Karla Barguiarena's 5 p.m. update | Rucks Russell's 5 p.m. update | Shern-Min Chow's 10 p.m. update | Raw video: part 2 | Raw video: part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5

Raw aerials from the scene

More than a dozen Red Cross Caseworkers met Tuesday with elderly residents displaced by Monday’s four-alarm apartment fire.

Approximately 200 Houston Housing Authority residents lost their homes at the Bellerive apartment complex.

The Houston Housing Authority has placed the residents in hotels and is providing meals for them.

About 150 rooms are occupied by these residents at the Hilton in southwest Houston.

The Red Cross is assisting resident with clothing, food and prescription medications.

The residents felt lucky to have gotten out alive after the terrifying blaze engulfed their homes Monday morning.

The Bellerive Apartments are located in the 7200 block of Bellerive at Stoneybrook.

“I smell smoke and I opened the door and I couldn’t see anything,” said one resident.

Alejandro Mastache, like other residents, was unable to escape on his own. “Come on down, I can’t come down because I smell smoke, I can’t see nothing, I don’t have a flashlight.”

Mastache lives just a few doors down from where officials believe the fire started.

Firefighters had to escort him, along with dozens of other neighbors, out of smoke-filled stairways.

They went door to door, searching.

“I was asleep, so it frightened me. I jumped up and put my clothes on. I didn’t know what to think,” Freddie Randolph said.

Firefighters had to break through windows to get to those trapped by the flames.

Several people had to be pulled out from their fifth floor rooms.

Down below, loved ones watched and waited.

Sharon Randolph is the daughter of a resident. “It was a terrible thing because my momma has severe asthma. If any of that smoke had touched her lungs she would have died spontaneously.”

Hers was a legitimate concern, given the amount of smoke.

“I went to help some of the older people get out, some are on dialysis, some are crippled and can’t hardly walk,” Mozelle Galvan said.

Houston Fire Department spokesman Rick Flanagan said that three people were transported to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital with minor injuries. They are in stable condition and are expected to recover.

At one point, some firefighters could not be located, but they were quickly found inside the building.

The building is eight stories tall, and it’s suspected that the fire started on the seventh floor.

There 250 rooms in the building, which was built in 1975.

Flanagan said 80 to 95 firefighters went door to door to make sure all of the residents were out safely.

“Nothing but old people, so there was much panic. People didn’t know what was going on,” Saied Laddey said.

The apartments are located behind Sharpstown Mall.

While help is getting to the displaced residents, they are still not beling able to return to their homes.

Inside KHOU.com

News Your Way: Get KHOU.com headlines
delivered to your favorite RSS reader.

Submit your Pics: Upload photos and browse others in our Pics section.

Submit Your Video: Upload your videos and browse others in our video section.

Find Activities: What's happening in your neighborhood? Community Calendar.

Discuss the News: Talk about the latest news, weather and entertainment headlines in our online forums.