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A fire broke out at a Hamden apartment building on Monday night, displacing as many as 50 people from their homes. 

About half of the units in the Mandy Management-owned building were destroyed. According to Fire Marshal Brian Dolan, the roof of the entire complex “was ripped off the entire building” and the building will have to be demolished. Although no residents were injured, several pets were not able to be rescued. The blaze also took homes, money, businesses and belongings from impacted residents.

“I said, ‘No, this can’t be real,’” said Jerlisa Thomas, who lived in the apartment complex. “And they were like, ‘No there was really a fire,’ and I looked at the building and the building was half gone.”

Thomas and Keyshawn Green, another resident, were not home when the fire occurred. Both learned about the fire from friends who had watched footage of the blaze on Facebook Live. When Thomas first received a phone call from her friend about the fire, she thought it was a prank. After a night out with friends, she returned home around 1 a.m. to find cops and police cars crowding the street in front of the building, barring her from entering and searching for the remains of her belongings. 

Thomas was in the process of starting a lingerie business and planned for the line’s first fashion show to happen on March 18. Earlier in the day, she had even made plans to promote a flyer advertising the show. However, the fire burned away all of the materials for the show and her business inventory, along with her legal documents, laptop and personal savings. She was also working to start an eyelash extension business, but lost all of the materials to the fire.

“The only thing left to my name is the clothes that I had on at work,” Thomas said. “Every single thing I had saved — back to years of records, receipts and everything on my laptop. … I couldn’t retrieve any of that stuff, on top of my bed, my furniture, my clothes — but the main thing that struck me the hardest was the stuff for my business.”

Green lived in the building with his 16-year-old brother. Green shared that belongings of sentimental value — including many photographs of their mother, who had passed away recently — are now forever lost to the fire. He said that they lost all of their electronics and furniture and only made it out with their lives and the clothes on their back.

Some residents were at home when the fire began. Monee Valentin; her mother, Kristina Cajigas; and her mother’s boyfriend, Timothy Nieves, were settling in for the evening when Nieves heard running outside. When Valentin went to get a glimpse of what was going on, she noticed smoke rising from the back of the complex and immediately shouted a warning for those inside to leave. 

“I didn’t grab anything and just ran across the street thinking it was on top of us,” Valentin said. “The fire spread and the whole left side of the complex, including mine located all the way at the beginning of the complex, got on fire.”

Thomas also shared that her neighbor, who lived in the building with her children, only woke up from her sleep to escape the fire after her son had broken down her bedroom door. 

Although police officers and firefighters were immediately dispatched, it took hours to finally extinguish the flames. The source of the fire has still not been identified.

Valentin said she and her family boarded a bus behind the complex with other residents after the fire was extinguished, and from there, residents traveled to Keefe Community Center. 

Displaced residents, including Valentin, Green and Thomas, are now staying at the Clarion Hotel and Suites in Hamden, where they have been given temporary shelter. The Red Cross and Community Center have been instrumental in providing people with food, shelter and temporary debit cards, according to Thomas.

However, accommodations are temporary, and former residents must find new places to live within the next few weeks. Valentin shared that the Red Cross gave her family a $500 debit card, and Thomas said that her card could only be used within the next sixty days. While some residents, like Green and his brother, have found financial support from family in the area, Thomas and others have struggled without any relatives in the state.

Green emphasized the importance of renter’s insurance, as many of those affected by the fire will be unable to make up for their losses. 

“My main concern is getting proper information out about how we can go about getting damage claims,” Green said. “Most of the people I know in the complex didn’t have renter’s insurance.” 

While the Keefe Community Center and the city’s Community Services Fund have collected donations for families, many have engaged in crowdfunding efforts. Thomas and Valentin have relatives who organized GoFundMe campaigns to help them recuperate from all they have lost. On social media platforms like Facebook, many community members have advertised similar campaigns in support of families impacted by the fire. 

Despite the hardship and loss, some residents still hold onto hope. While Valentin said her family has tried to pray and keep moving forward in life, Green has taken steps day by day to gain back some of the items he lost. Thomas is still optimistic about the future of her business, Chemistry Lingerie, and still plans to go through with her fashion show.

“I put in all the inventory I had for my fashion show — my first fashion show that I’ve ever decided to do, and it’s all gone. But I don’t want it to be over,” Thomas said. “I don’t want to give up on it, and I do want to make this happen.”

A compilation of items requested by families displaced by the fire can be found here.