ALLENTOWN, Pa. – 18 people are being assisted by the Red Cross as multiple families plan their next steps following the devastating fire along South Saint Cloud Street in Allentown.

Some of the victims are visiting to assess the damage. As they return home, they think about what could have been.

“God works in a lot of ways,” said Zoraida Irizarry. “He got us up and used us to help everyone because I think that if we wouldn’t have been up, we would have been dead…everybody.”

They reflect on the devastating fire that spread quickly from the neighboring units and what they did when they saw the flames.

“I tried knocking on the door, and no one was answering, so I tried yelling through the basement,” said Angel Roman. “‘Yo, there is a fire, get out, get out,’” he remembers screaming.

Those calls for help and the family’s quick actions presumably saved neighbors as flames quickly spread early Saturday morning.

“It was chaos, and when we saw the fire really, really coming out, that is when we were like, wow, this is real,” said Irizarry.

Some neighbors were unaware of the tragedy unfolding around them.

“We didn’t want anyone to die. We went crazy trying to break the windows and stuff because we knew there were people in there and they were sleeping,” she said.

In the midst of tragedy, they recall a community coming together.

“Then again, you see there are still good people out there,” Irizarry says about the response from everyone following the fire.

The Red Cross is assisting those impacted families, and an emergency services contractor is making sure the homes are secure.

“We’ve been boarding up the windows, securing the doors and holes in the roof, tarping the roof, and making sure the homes are secure,” said emergency services contractor Anthony Stellar.

As for what’s next?

“We just finished up the emergency services, and now we are starting to meet with the insurance companies, homeowners, and investigators with the insurance companies,” said Stellar.

The family we spoke with emphasized how kind the community has been and how amazing the firefighters were that night. They just hope the community continues to rally around their neighbors who lost everything.