When Jeanine Bouile stepped out of the shower Sunday night to find her bedroom in North Miami on fire, she struggled to throw some clothes on and escape. She left behind all her belongings at the Six Oaks Apartments in North Miami, including presents her 12-year-old daughter opened on her birthday Saturday.
''I couldn't save anything,'' Bouile said. ``My daughter cried very badly.''
Bouile's apartment was destroyed, and the 33-year-old was one of 33 people left at least temporarily homeless and unable to return to the charred complex, 14560 NE Sixth Ave., on Monday.
Ten apartments were damaged by the fire. Besides Bouile's, two others suffered extensive smoke and water damage, Miami-Dade Fire spokesman Lt. Eugene Germaine said. He said it took 60 firefighters about a half hour to quell the flames.
Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire but believe it may have been started by a household electrical device.
The Red Cross helped Sunday night, providing free hotel rooms for three days, food, medication and clothing.
Surveying the blackened hallway and the broken windows to his apartment, Six Oaks resident Jean Lacroix wondered when he and his family will be able to return to normalcy.
''It's very bad,'' said Lacroix, 58. ``The Red Cross says three days, but three days isn't enough.''
Bouile, who is on medical leave from her job as a laundry worker at a local hospital after injuring her back in a car accident two weeks ago, said Red Cross officials are helping her look for a new apartment and will help her pay rent for one month.
''I was going to go back to work Tuesday morning, but now I can't because I don't have a place to live,'' she said.
