“I grew up there. I lived there for 10 years since I was like 10 years old so it was really scary seeing my house on fire,” Serinteree Grandpre said.
Grandpre was inside her Waterbury apartment on Monday night when flames broke out in the other room.
“It was quick, everything happened really quick so I couldn’t grab nothing,” she said. “I could only grab my baby.”
Both made it out safe, but her home as she knew it for 13 years was gone in a matter of minutes.
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The Waterbury Fire Department responded to the emergency on Williams Street around 7 p.m., staying for several hours.
“The third floor is a total loss. Total loss from fire and water damage and there’s probably some water damage on the second floor,” Waterbury Fire Department Battalion Chief Sean Maynard said.
While no one was injured, authorities say 27 people were displaced, including Serinteree and her 1-year-old son.
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“Everything we worked hard for to get him, to make him comfortable, give him a good life, got destroyed, so of course it’s scary but you can’t think about the negative,” Grandpre said.
She and her family say the property manager has put the tenants up at a nearby motel for the time being.
“Thankfully I have a family that loves me and supports me so I’m going to be with them and I’m very grateful for that,” she said.
After that, the road back to stability is littered with uncertainty.
“Furniture’s gone, everything’s gone with the smoke. Now we just gotta wait for an apartment to come through and hopefully they get their proper help,” Serinteree’s uncle Jeffrey Grandpre said.
