Family from Ukraine who lost Pleasant Hill apartment in fire gets help from community
Kateryna Sarozhynska and her family, who recently moved to the U.S from war-torn Ukraine, are still in shock from a fire that destroyed their apartment unit and affected several others in Pleasant Hill.
"Here if you can see it, a lot of thing of my children's toys, also like mattresses," Sarozhynska told CBS News Bay Area. "This is a mattress, a piece of mattress. And we can't see a lot of things but here was, right here it was a printer."
Contra Costa fire crews evacuated at least 10 apartments at Viking Park Apartments across from Diablo Valley College on Oct. 29. Investigators believe that a fire broke out between two unit bathrooms that plumbers were working in.
"First door, you can see, it's black. This is all black, because there was black smoke," Sarozhynska said.
She said she is grateful her children were playing outside, and said nobody was injured.
But now the question is, what's next?
"They told us that we can't touch anything here," Sarozhynska said.
She also added that they did not have renter's insurance, and are staying with a family friend for now. Sarozhynska and her husband, along with their two children, moved from Ukraine to the Bay Area about eight months ago.
"In the entrance, I had one plant that I also took to the USA, when we moved to the USA with us. So I think it's not alive because it was very hot," she said.
They've come to call the Pleasant Hill community their family.
Ronnie Lunt, a neighbor, has been helping the family during this unprecedented time.
"Here you go, this is from a whole bunch, these are donations from Facebook, a whole bunch of strangers who wanted to help out," Lunt said, while giving bags of donated items to Sarozhynska.
"It is very important to help families and friends in these situations, because this whole situation that happened should not have happened," he said. "Community in Pleasant Hill and a lot of the Bay Area has helped this family get back on their feet."
Sarozhynska's friend helped set up a GoFundMe for her family, and Lunt also set up donation pages for her other neighbors that were also affected.
"It really helps us, we felt that we're not alone," Sarozhynska said.
