SALT LAKE CITY -- A three alarm fire Wednesday morning at a Salt Lake City apartment complex left more than 70 people are out of their homes.
The fire broke out just after two a.m. at the Seasons at Pebble Creek Apartments in the area of 1700 South and Redwood Road.
Wednesday afternoon, residents saw the aftermath of what used to be their homes.
"For me, it's like a dream still," Rebecca Young said. "You know, what do you do, where do we start getting things taken care of?"
The Youngs could make out their son's bedroom and their daughter's charred pink blanket through the windows.
"Just kind of surreal you know, this is where we lived," she said.
But now Rebecca, her husband and their five young children can't go back.
They and other residents woke up to smoke billowing through the hallways of their apartment complex.
Then they saw the massive flames and had to escape.
"I was hearing somebody say 'help me, help me,'" resident Cassandra Cabrera said.
Fire crews say one woman jumped from her second story balcony to get out.
"Somebody grabbed the ladder and tried to save the lady that was in there and everybody jumped out," Cabrera said.
While fire crews worked desperately to save the apartments, dozens of people watched helplessly as the flames claimed all they own.
"Once we saw the flames coming up to the side where our apartment is at that's when it was just like well ...," Resident Jeremy Young said without finishing the sentence.
Crews kept the flames from reaching other buildings, but two dozen apartments are damaged, 18 of them declared to be total losses.
Gone are priceless memories.
"I had pictures from 1999 in my daughter's closet, they're gone," Young said.
But as hard as it is to explain to their children what happened, the Youngs say it could've been much worse.
"I think it's setting in with them how serious it was," Young said. "And how grateful we are for our lives."
