Health care worker displaced after blaze rips through Hollywood apartment building

A health care worker is left homeless after her apartment burst into flames while she was working an overnight shift early Wednesday morning. 

Kernis Butler was working as an anesthesia technician at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood when she got the call about the blaze. 

"I got up this morning, I didn't do anything extra, I didn't cook or anything," she said through tears. "My manager came running upstairs to me in  the OR to say Hollywood Police is calling, your place is on fire. I was devastated. I was so scared."

Hollywood Fire Rescue's response to the blaze 

According to Hollywood Fire Rescue, crews responded to reports of a fire in the 2700 block of Johnson Street just before 6 a.m.

"We heard a big explosion," Butler's neighbor, Shirley Vazquez said. "I had to run with my baby. We had to go. I mean, there's nothing else that we could have did. I was kind of nervous, because that's my place too literally next door to it."

Hollywood Fire Spokesperson Chai Kauffman said crews first saw the fire coming out of the AC unit, but the State Fire Marshall is still investigating the official cause.

"Fires like this is unexplainable sometimes," she said. "That's why we call out our firing inspector so they can investigate to know what happened."

Butler has been left homeless and unsure of what to do next 

All Butler's belongings are soaked or destroyed. Butler is trying to figure out what to do. 

"I wanted to go in to see if I can get my passport, and they say I can't go in," she said. "I want to get my passport. I don't care about anything else, because I had a money order for 750 in there."

She's also working out where to go.

"I'm like, what am I gonna do?" She said. :Because I don't have relatives here. I'm just destroyed right now because I'm like homeless."

No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is under investigation.  

Hollywood Fire connected Butler with the Red Cross. 

She said she is also talking to her building manager to see what her options are.