Tenants at a storage unit that caught fire in Tampa are waiting to be allowed back to see what might be left for them to save.
One person was found dead after the fire at the Public Storage on 56th Street, and a firefighter was injured.
Just hours after Alexis Jennings moved half of all her possessions into a unit, the building caught on fire.
“I just literally moved my stuff in last Friday, and I got off work Saturday afternoon,” she says. “I was scrolling on Facebook, and I saw a post that the unit was on fire.”
Public Storage hasn’t responded to an email we sent on Monday asking when tenants may be able to go inside and see what might be salvageable.
“To this day, there are no emails, there’s no phone call to even tell us that the unit was burned down,” she adds. “I just want to see what’s left so I can start deciding and start saving because I literally just moved.”
Hillsborough Fire Chief Rob Herrin says the cause will be investigated for a few weeks. Hillsborough sheriff’s deputies haven’t yet answered our questions about the body found after the fire was over. Jennings tells me there are some things she had inside that she’ll never be able to replace.
“All my couches, all my paintings, my grandmother’s wedding album, her keepsakes, her antiques, like literally everything was in there,” she says.
Unless there’s insurance on items inside a unit, storage facilities generally don’t have to pay out the value of things lost in a disaster like a fire. While storage facilities typically don’t pay tenants for items after a fire, check your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policies. Those can offer some relief, though generally not for the full value of what’s lost.