More than two dozen families were left homeless Saturday night after a fire ripped through an apartment building on Winthrop Street in New Haven. Seven people, including a firefighter, were hurt in the blaze.
Police said that 16 families were displaced by the fire.
Patricia Cymbalat and her son are two of the people left homeless. They returned to their building hours after the fire ravaged their apartment. She said that everyone had left the building and that the Red Cross were putting her and her son in a hotel for two nights.
They gathered what little they could from their first floor apartment, put it in a few bags, and headed to the temporary housing.
The fire started in a second floor studio apartment at noon on Saturday, according to fire officials. It destroyed that unit. Fifteen other units have smoke or water damage.
"Everything is filled with water," Cymbalat said. "The stove, all my cabinets, my closet with all my stuff in it," she added.
The woman in the apartment where the fire started suffered burns and smoke inhalation, according to officials at the scene. Firefighters rescued a family of five, three young children and their parents.
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"They were taken to the hospital just as a precaution, but they seem to be doing fine," said James Stacy, Captain of the New Haven Fire Department.
"The babies are doing find, and the woman in the fire apartment - the latest report is that she doing OK," Stacy said.
A firefighter is recovering from falling down a flight of stairs.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
One man who said he worked for the landlord said the house would be boarded up for the weekend. He added that he believed they would repair the building. There was no indication when residents would be able to move back in.
