COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A large apartment fire in College Park on Monday morning left as many as 100 people needing help from the Red Cross because they can't go home.
Firefighters in Prince George's County extinguished the flames, which could be seen shooting from the roof of the apartment building with black smoke visible.
Prince George's County Fire Department crews were called to the 10100 block of Baltimore Avenue, near IKEA, for a report of a fire just before 8:30 a.m.
Crews were using ladders and hoses to try to extinguish the flames at the three-story building. A second alarm was called to get more firefighters and resources to the scene. Later, firefighters called a third alarm as well.
A public information officer for the fire department said it appears the fire started on an apartment balcony and then reached the roof.
Caesy Rodriguez's third-story unit was the apartment that suffered the worst damage.
"I lost my grandmother on Friday," he said. "I lost my job. I lost this, but I am grateful and appreciative that I am alive, my family is alive. We might of lost everything, but we have life."
Rodriguez says the six family members that were inside the home were able to escape the smoke, but his birds that were on the balcony did not make it. As he tried to run out of the apartment complex, he says he thought of opening the balcony door.
"I was thinking of opening the door, but I got stuck," Rodriguez said. "I would say God stopped me from opening that door because if I would have opened that door all that fire would have rushed in."
A burnt speaker was all he had left of his entire music production equipment that went up in flames. "Everything I worked for my whole life to have the equipment I wanted. I ended up spending 10 thousand dollars to get. It all went up,' Rodriguez added.
Red Cross of the National Capital & Greater Chesapeake Region disaster action team members are helping about 100 people from an estimated 37 units who were impacted, the organization said.
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