ROSSFORD, Ohio — Two people were rescued and many more were displaced from a fire at a Rossford apartment complex Friday.
Now, residents of the River Ridge Apartments like Orlo Horsley are trying to figure out their next steps.
"All I could hear was just the beeping of the smoke alarms going off and me and my girlfriend just look outside," Horsley said. "Once we opened the door, there was more smoke pouring into our apartment."
Nichole Branstutter has lived at River Ridge for 14 years. While she wasn't home, her boyfriend was and had to be rescued by the firefighters, she said.
"Now it's just a matter of figuring out what we're going to do, where we're going to go and how long we have to be out of a house for now," Branstutter said. "He was covered in soot and everything and he had to go to the balcony and yell for help and then they put the ladder up to get him down."
The couple was able to go back in to grab a few of their belongings, but a lot of it needs to be replaced.
"Everything is covered in soot," Branstutter said. "It's all over our hands our body, our clothes, everything we own."
The local chapter of the American Red Cross was at the scene to help displaced people recover. Rachel Hepner-Zawodny, the executive director of the Western Lake Erie Red Cross chapter, says not only does the organization help people get clothes and money, but it also helps them figure out what to do next.
"There's a million things going through your head," Hepner-Zawodny said. "You might have lost your ID, your medication, kind of helping them organize those thoughts and get them through the process is what we're really good at."
Branstutter is grateful for the Red Cross' help and is thankful there were no deaths in the fire as continues to process it.
"It's really sad," Branstutter said. "Especially around the holidays right now and everybody's just trying to get ready and then now this happens. So, we're all going to be displaced for a while but we're all safe, we're all OK, we're all alive."
The number of people affected and the cause of the fire are not yet known, according to Rossford fire chief Josh Drouard.