‘We lost everything:’ 43 people forced out of homes after 3 Saturday fires in Las Vegas Valley
By Shawna Khalafi
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LAS VEGAS, Nevada (KVVU) — 43 people, including 14 children, were displaced in three separate fires Saturday in the Las Vegas Valley.
merican Red Cross of Southern Nevada said it responded to two apartment fires and a house fire, all Saturday morning:
15 residents displaced from four apartments, 2217 N. Jones Blvd. in Las Vegas 17 residents displaced from six apartments, 6666 W. Washington Ave. in Las Vegas 11 residents displaced from a home fire, 413 Mulberry Glen Dr. in North Las Vegas
“When I came home, the fire department was parked in front of my house, and my house was in flames,” said Chanise Williams, a displaced resident at the apartments on Jones Blvd.
“We lost everything,” said Williams. “From the front to the back of the house, everything is damaged, smoke damage, water damage. They had to wet down things, they had to tear down the walls because it was going to the attic. We have nothing.”
FOX5 spoke to two of the residents left without a permanent place to stay at the Jones apartments. Both had similar stories about their past that led their families to this building, and they share a feeling of uncertainty for the future.
“We’re homeless ourselves, getting help from Help of Southern Nevada, and this is where they put us,” said another displaced resident James Waldie. “So now if something happens, we don’t have no place to go.”
“We were currently just homeless before we moved here last year. Me and my children, we were homeless for 6 months,” said Williams. “So now we have to start back over, and we just gained everything back just within this year.”
The Red Cross of Southern Nevada responded to all three fires on Saturday, handing out funds for temporary housing and promising a case worker will follow up with the displaced residents for long-term support.
“We’ll look at medical equipment that may have been destroyed in the fire, we look at medications that need to be replaced,” said Rachel Flanigan, Executive Director of the Red Cross of Southern Nevada. “If they need clothes, we try and connect them with resources, if they’re food insecure, we’ll try to connect them with a partner that does that as well.”
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