Ladiarie Thompson had looked forward to her Friday night senior prom for a long time.
She had a date, and the perfect dress was laid out in her apartment.
Thompson was having her hair done Friday afternoon when her cellphone rang.
"Your apartment's on fire!" a friend said.
When Thompson, 17, rushed home, she found the eight-unit, two-story apartment building, where she lives with a friend, engulfed in flames.
Billowing black smoke could be seen for miles from the Cherry Hill Apartments at 5970 Baymort Court in the Woodhaven neighborhood. The fire was called in about 4:15 p.m., and 50 firefighters worked to put out the three-alarm blaze.
Officials declared the building a total loss, Fort Worth Fire Department spokesman Lt. Kent Worley said.
Damage to the building and contents was estimated at $500,000, he said.
Thompson sat on the stairs of the opposite building and cried. The Fort Worth Can! Academy senior's prom dress was gone, her senior pictures destroyed, small treasures from childhood in ashes.
"I'm going to miss prom," she said, crying. "But I'm more worried about my dog, my poor puppy. Pedro was only three weeks old."
The puppy was found safe later Thursday evening.
A resident called the complex's office to report smoke, and employees ran to the building and kicked in the doors to make sure no one was inside.
"They told us there was no fire in the units, that they saw flames and smoke only along the west side of the building along the roofline," Worley said.
That helped investigators determine that the cause was an electrical fire in the attic, Worley said.
Because of the afternoon's 95 degree heat, Worley said, residents had their air-conditioning units on high, possibly for the first time this year, which could have triggered the fire.
Worley said the complex's owners have other properties in the area with units available for the displaced residents. Red Cross teams provided basic needs.
April Hawkins, 16, a junior at O.D. Wyatt High School, said she will also miss the prom. She lived on the first floor with her uncle and had just come home from school when she saw the commotion.
"I need all my stuff for school," she said. "I don't know what I'll do. It's gone. All of it. This is so messed up."
Lorenzo Rosalio stood with his arm around his wife, watching the firefighters work. He kept shaking his head.
He said, "I was scared. I live next door. I saw the flames shoot through the roof, and I thought it was coming here next. We're lucky."
