On the first Friday morning of August, Ashley Santiago looked out the window of her apartment on the corner of Gun Hill Road and Rochambeau Avenue and saw fire raining down from the sky.

“My mom told me, ‘Look, there’s fire coming down from the sky,'” she said, two hours later.

Dressed in shorts and a tank top, the 18-year-old grabbed her wallet, cell phone and keys and ran out of the building, 3504 Rochambeau Ave., along with her mother, aunt and two dogs.

Santiago’s family and every other resident, including two teenagers who were in the apartment where the fire erupted, made it out of the building in plenty of time, but damage from the fire left a handful of families homeless, at least temporarily.

(Editor’s note: The building is owned by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, the nonprofit which publishes the Norwood News.)

The Red Cross was on hand to assist people with finding alternative living situations and property managers were able to house displaced families in other local apartments at other buildings in its portfolio.

The blaze began in a corner apartment on the sixth floor of the building. On Aug. 22, a Fire Department spokesman said the fire was still under investigation by fire marshals. Twenty-five units and over 100 firefighters came to the scene of the fire which was brought under control within an hour. One civilian and seven firefighters suffered minor injuries.

Since the fire, property managers and owners have been working to restore gas and hot water to the building.

The ground floor of the building is home to a few businesses, including VIP Restaurant and a Golden Krust. Both businesses have been closed since the fire.

Many of the residents have lived there for decades and said the building is well-maintained.

Carmen Olmo, a resident of the building for the past 22 years, was crying outside of the building as her neighbors were slowly heading back into their homes. An asthmatic, Olmo was at the St. Ann’s Church flea market, which is adjacent to the building, when the fire started.

When she saw the flames, she raced into her building and started banging on doors and yelling for them to get out until her asthma kicked in and forced her to escape outside.

Olmo’s door was one of a dozen knocked down by firefighters, but she said that wasn’t the reason she was crying. “I’m crying because I’m asthmatic and this is my home and these are my neighbors,” she said.