CHAMBLEE, Ga. — Two weeks after a Mother’s Day fire tore through the Windsor Parkview Apartments in Chamblee, part of the roof remains collapsed and construction crews are still working to repair the damage.
More than 70 people were displaced after the fire at the apartment complex off Peachtree Boulevard, according to DeKalb County fire officials.
One of those families was Daniel Sabogal, his wife and two daughters, who lived in a unit above one of the businesses at the complex.
“About a half mile away when we say the smoke and the roof of the ceiling,” Sabogal told Channel 2’s Eryn Rogers as he described returning to the apartment complex on Mother’s Day.
Sabogal said the damage left the family with nothing.
“It was destroyed. Maybe not all from the fire, but the water,” he said.
He said many of the items lost in the fire and water damage were critical personal documents.
“It was devastating especially for our documents, passports, green cards, credit cards, all the stuff our belongings are up there,” Sabogal said.
Sabogal recently immigrated to the United States from Colombia on a national interest visa and said he is still looking for work. He said not having renters insurance has made recovering from the fire even more difficult.
“I don’t have renters insurance because when you come to the United States you have to make many decisions in a short amount of time,” Sabogal said. “Sometimes you don’t understand it.”
DeKalb fire officials said an air conditioning unit caught fire on the roof, causing the partial collapse.
The apartment complex relocated the Sabogal family into another unit, where they moved this weekend.
“We are safe. We are together and we are OK,” Sabogal said.
Despite the loss, Sabogal said he remains hopeful his family can recover.
“This was the place we were building a new dream and a new life, but I think we can recover, and we can start again,” he said.
Businesses underneath the apartment complex also remained closed two weeks after the fire.
The Sabogal family has started a GoFundMe to help replace their belongings.
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