Displaced Tenants From Oakland Apartment Fire Say They Lost Everything
José Pabon and his wife were eating in their East Oakland apartment on Friday night when he said they heard a loud boom coming from down the hall.
He ran out of their unit to look for the source of the noise, and said he found the hallway “already on fire.”
“We grabbed our daughter and ran out,” he told KQED in Spanish on Monday. “We started to yell because everything was already full of black smoke. People were yelling, and going out and asking for help.”
Just after midnight, flames quickly tore through the four-story apartment building on the 5100 block of Bancroft Avenue, displacing dozens of residents and causing significant damage.
According to fire chief Damon Covington, crews arrived at the scene of the three-alarm fire just after 12:30 a.m. to find “heavy smoke and fire from all four floors.” He said firefighters performed rescues on multiple levels.
In total, around 70 people occupying 19 of the building’s 21 units were evacuated, and four were transported to local medical centers with injuries.
The city has set up a temporary shelter for tenants, and the Housing and Community Development Department is working with individuals and families to find longer-term shelter, according to spokesperson Sean Maher.
But many tenants who fled their apartments quickly now find themselves without their belongings or homes to return to.
Pabon said he was able to go back into his unit with a firefighter to grab a few things — a cell phone, car keys and some documents, but the rest is lost.
“I got out with only my pants, without shoes or anything,” said Alberto Martin, who was asleep in the apartment he shared with three roommates before the sound of an explosion woke him up early Friday.
“The fire was almost up to the windows,” he recalled Monday, on the verge of tears. “When we went to leave, the waves of fire were almost reaching us.”
Parks and Recreation Department Supervisor Angelica Lopez said her department has been able to provide some clothing and basic essentials from emergency buckets that they keep at city recreation centers, and is working with partner organizations like St. Vincent DePaul to collect and distribute donations.
Since Friday, about 22 residents have been staying at the city’s temporary shelter, while some have opted to sleep in their cars and come in only for meals, and others have found their own places to stay, according to Lopez.
She said the Red Cross was able to provide cots, and the center is serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Lopez said the shelter doesn’t yet have a closing date, and will remain available to all displaced tenants for the time being.
Pabon and his wife, who are both delivery drivers, said they stayed home from work on Monday while they try to determine what comes next for their family.
“We’re not in the headspace to work,” he said in Spanish. “We are worried because we do not know what is going to happen to us right now.”
Martin, who usually works in construction, also planned to remain at the shelter so that he could attend a meeting with city officials, where he hoped to get more information about housing.
“Let’s see what God says, because here, one can’t say [what’s going to happen],” he told KQED in Spanish. “We don’t know who can help us.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation.