MARGATE -- After a brunch of sandwiches, potato chips and soda, several victims of an apartment fire sat helplessly Sunday in front of a Red Cross shelter, talking about the blaze that consumed their apartments and belongings the night before.
"I have nobody here," said Mona Cadet, a fire victim who moved from New Jersey to South Florida. "I don't have a bed to sleep in. I have nowhere to go."
The fire started at around 9 p.m. Saturday in an apartment at the Cross Creek rental community in the 5600 block of Southwest Second Court. It quickly spread and destroyed almost all of the building's 24 apartments. No one was injured, but about 60 people lost their homes.
Diane Hicks said she was watching television in Apt. 207 when she noticed a small fire between a computer desk and a chair in her bedroom. Hicks said she used a pillow to put out the fire, but the flame grew larger and almost burned her face. Hicks ran with her grandson, David, 5, from the two-bedroom apartment she also shared with David's mother, Divan "Crystal" Hicks.
Outside, Diane Hicks said, she flagged a maintenance worker who went into the apartment and unsuccessfully tried to extinguish the fire. Fighting their way through the smoke, they began knocking on doors to evacuate the other residents.
Barefoot and dressed in pajamas, Diane Hicks could only watch the fire destroy the bedrooms and clothing they had just bought for David, who starts kindergarten today. Diane Hicks estimated the family's personal loss at more than $10,000.
"I moved to Florida from New York six years ago to start a new life, and this is what happened to me," she said Sunday, sitting on a bench in front of the Red Cross shelter at 6111 NW 10th St., Margate. "I never believed that a fire would come my way. I'm too careful."
Fire Chief Garry Westbrook, of the Margate Fire-Rescue Department, said the fire was allowed to spread because no one called firefighters immediately while Hicks and the maintenance man tried to put it out.
Westbrook said someone dialed 911 and hung up, automatically dispatching a police officer to investigate a possible crime. He said the officer was the one who finally alerted fire-rescue about the blaze.
"Call us before you do anything. Call 911," Westbrook said. "The sooner we get [to a fire scene], the quicker we can put it out."
The fire gutted 16 apartments; smoke and water damaged the others. Westbrook said its cause was under investigation, and it was too early to estimate the damage cost.
Chantal Nichtawitz, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross' Broward County chapter, said 41 of the 60 victims displaced by the fire were receiving assistance ranging from temporary shelter to food and clothing. Dan Magno, Cross Creek's security director, said management would relocate the victims to other units within the development.
The Red Cross is encouraging local residents to reach out in the relief effort, for this and other fire disasters.
"On average, we respond to three house fires every week," said William B. Epps Jr., the chapter's executive director. Those who want to help can call 954-797-3822.
Mona Cadet, a Haitian immigrant, said she had time only to grab her purse before fleeing. Cadet said she lost all her belongings, including her computer and books recently bought for her fashion designer class at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.
"I lost everything," she said, clutching a pink copy of a police report. "My green card was in there. My birth certificate was in there. I don't know what I'm going to do."
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