Families escape early morning condo fire in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Vicky Cole returned to what's left of her apartment at the Enclave at Sabal Pointe condo complex in St. Petersburg as the sun came up on Sunday.

"You can look outside from inside of the house," Vicky said. "The inside is water damaged, there's smoke - soot - dirt. We just have to start over and we don't know where were gonna stay and the next couple of days what it's gonna be." 

Flames quickly spread above her unit after a fire broke out inside her neighbor's place around 2:30am. 

Vicky said she was watching her grandchildren overnight. Everyone was asleep when her son came home and started banging on the door.

"He noticed the smoke as he was driving up and he came over and alerted the neighbors next door where the fire actually started," Vicky recalled. "Everyone just got out and then we came downstairs and started knocking on all the other complexes."

St. Pete Fire Rescue responded to the call. Thankfully everyone made it out safely and no one was hurt.

Vicky said her neighbors who lived in the unit where the fire started were a husband and wife with three small children. 

"They lost everything," Vicky said. "We were able to salvage some stuff but they lost like everything." 

American Red Cross teams were on site and will provide funds, resources, and places to stay for Vicky, her neighbors, and another family downstairs. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

As of late Sunday morning, the complex had yet to contact impacted residents about their options moving forward