Firefighters battled more than a dozen fires across Charlotte on Thursday, including one apparently started by a discarded cigarette butt.
Storms carrying lightning and gusting winds were blamed for 12 blazes and power outages that left tens of thousands of homes and businesses without electricity across parts of the Carolinas.
But it was a burning cigarette butt that started a fire that destroyed a three-story apartment building in northeast Charlotte, leaving at least 20 people homeless, residents say.
There were no reports of serious injuries late Thursday.
The storm left 45,000 Duke Power customers without electricity.
Flames engulfed an apartment building shortly before 4 p.m. at the Berkeley Place Apartments complex off Mallard Creek Church Road near Interstate 85.
Dimas Gonzalez told authorities the blaze started when a cigarette his roommate discarded in a cup burned a couch on a third-floor balcony and the flames spread.
The two men attempted to douse the blaze with fire extinguishers before searching in vain for a pet dog and cat, which they never found.
Gonzalez said the flames and heat were so powerful they threw him back. "It was so dark we bumped into each other."
Mallard Creek Fire Chief Kirk Killian would not confirm Gonzalez's account, saying only that the cause is under investigation.
Some residents said there was mild panic as police ordered them to leave.
"People were grabbing everything," said Tara Showkeir.
Mostly UNC Charlotte students and other college-age people lived in the building, where they said they paid $1,175 a month for three-bedroom apartments.
Many said they lost everything they owned because they did not have renter's insurance.
Roommates Kara Wexler and Ann Wood had just moved into the building this week.
"I'm in shock," said Wexler, 20. "I'm scared. We have no belongings."
Kelly Freshcorn was coming home when she saw the flames and began fearing for the safety of her cat, Isabel. But firefighters had already rescued the cat from the third-floor apartment.
"I was thinking the worst," said Freshcorn, 26.
Freshcorn and her roommates had recently agreed to purchase a house. They were to move into it this weekend.
"Now we have a house and nothing to put in it," she said.
Distributed by the Associated Press
