"I don't know what my plan is": Residents try to salvage what they can in aftermath of Boston fire
DORCHESTER - Elizabeth Gilchrist breaks down outside what used to be her Dorchester home. "Pretty much everything. I don't know what my plan is."
One day after fire ripped through an apartment building on Ellington Street in Dorchester and heavily damaged two buildings, neighbors came to collect whatever they can salvage. For Gilchrist, there wasn't much left.
"Some clothes, my mom's ashes, my animals I was able to save," she said. She lives on the second floor in the building adjacent to where the fire started. Massive flames engulfed the porch and quickly spread to two nearby apartment buildings. Gilchrist said she was at home asleep on her couch when she heard banging on her door. "My neighbors were just banging on the door, screaming there was a fire. Telling everybody to get out. I was able to grab my dog and we got out."
Fire officials said one person was seriously injured in the fire and 29 people have been displaced.
"I'm very thankful. Everything else is replaceable, me and my kids' lives are not," she said. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army are assisting families, but for this single mother of three children, she knows the road ahead will be difficult. Right now she is staying with a friend. "I don't know, it's like where do you start, how do you start over? I've got to call the city of Boston with the number they gave us today and see what happens from there."
Fire officials say the fire is still under investigation. No word yet on what caused the fire to start. Now 29 residents will have to find a new place to call home.