TOLEDO, Ohio — The Ortiz family was on the second floor when the Alexis Road Fairfield Inn & Suites caught fire early Wednesday morning. The family was staying there because their home was flooded on Monday due to the water main break in North Toledo.
"We opened our back door to the basement and we saw the water coming in through our side door and the basement was already flooded probably waist high," said Alejandro Ortiz, one of the family members that was displaced.
After gathering what they could from the house, their landlord put them up in the Fairfield Inn & Suites.
That was until Wednesday morning.
"I heard a loud pop and then a beep in our room," Alejandro said as he described the moments before the fire alarm went off. "I'd seen flashing lights outside that were orange. I went to check the hotel to see if there was a fire. Didn't really hear anything. Couldn't smell no smoke, no gas. So I really didn't think anything of it."
He said he laid back down only for a brief time. "The fire alarm went off and we had to wake up all the kids and got their coats and their shoes and we got out, we left everything else behind," he added.
A retired pastor helped the Ortiz family out on Tuesday after the flooding. He filled their car's gas tank and got them food, Alejandro said.
"The groceries that he bought us and the outfits for the kids that we were able to save from the house, we took to the hotel with us and then we lost all of that in the hotel fire," he said.
Where the Ortiz family will go next is yet to be seen.
"We're a tight-knit family so that's helped so much in the long run, even through all the stress and we've broke down and cried a few times but we're just trying to hold it together and stay positive," Alejandro said. "Our family is reaching out to us, like my family from Michigan, just making sure we're okay and just know we still got each other. Nobody is hurt."
They said they are in need of children's clothes, ages ranging from 9 months old to 16.
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