Video shows devastation from deadly Plainfield, N.J. apartment building fire
A fire that tore through an apartment building in Plainfield, New Jersey, early Sunday morning killed the parents of two children.
Cellphone video shows flames shooting out of the fourth-floor window of the building on West Front Street. Additional video obtained by CBS News New York shows the aftermath and complete devastation from the front door to the kitchen inside the unit where investigators believe the fire started.
That's where officials say the bodies of Leonel Garcia-Cortez and Maria Guaya were found. Their two children, ages 17 and 11, were able to escape.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
"We try to give them whatever they need"
Displaced resident Rina Gonzalez said in Spanish she lives beneath the unit that went up in flames and that she and her son were knocking on doors to alert other neighbors as they fled. The clothes she was wearing Monday are all she has left. Everything else was destroyed.
Plainfield's Advisory Commission on Hispanic Affairs is collecting what it can for the 72 people who are now displaced.
"What we are going to give to people is blankets, towels, tooth brush," commissioner member Flor M. Gonzalez said. "We try to give them whatever they need. If their children need clothes, we have a company that is going to give us a lot of clothes."
Many of those displaced are staying at a shelter, where they are receiving food and services from the American Red Cross.
Plainfield, North Plainfield communities come together
Plainfield Mayor Adrian O. Mapp is pledging to support all the victims. Residents also came by the building on Monday to see how they can help.
City officials said the building will refund security deposits to those who have been displaced.
The Plainfield School District is also providing grief counseling and crisis response services to the victims of the fire, as well as hosting a donation drive at the Cardinal Family Success Center on Madison Avenue.
"Then I can come to the church and spread the word and [get] a group together to come and help," North Plainfield resident Mercedes Rodriguez said.
"It's hard and bad because [it was] Thanksgiving," Plainfield resident Crystal Fernandez added.