More than a dozen residents who lost their homes in the Bronx blaze that killed 12 people returned to the tragic scene Sunday, hoping to recover cherished possessions from charred apartments.
One couple came in search of a pet turtle. Another resident was on the hunt for citizenship documents. One man simply wanted to find his car keys.
“It’s a mess, my apartment, everything’s wet. I won’t get it back,” said Thierno Diallo, 59, who lived on the ground floor of the Belmont building.
Diallo, whose four kids and wife live in Ghana, works as a security guard. He emerged with a roller suitcase and a duffle bag after spending 20 minutes in his apartment.
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He said he managed to recover his work uniform. But he had been hoping to find documents connected to his citizenship application.
Despite his losses, he was relieved he survived the five-alarm fire.
“Really thank God I’m alive,” he said. “People are dead.”
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The residents — who have been living in hotels in Long Island City and Brooklyn since the fire Thursday night — were told they could sift through their homes Sunday morning.
However, only residents who lived on the ground floor and the basement were actually allowed to enter their homes. Officials said the higher-floor units were not safe.
Marshall Igbinedion, who has been staying in a Red Lion hotel in Brooklyn since the fire, returned wearing the khaki cargo pants he's had on since Thursday.
Officials turned him away because his second-floor unit was too dangerous to enter.
"I lost everything,” said Igbinedion, who escaped the fire through a window. “I need my car keys. My papers.”
He stared at the building for a while before walking to a nearby church that had been collecting clothes for victims to see if any donations fit him.
Cynthia Bryant said she and her husband came to find their turtle. They left him behind in their second-floor flat when they crawled out a window to escape billowing smoke.
“Tuck, my turtle, is probably up there just swimming around,” she said.
Fernando Batiz, who lost his sister, Maria Batiz, and her infant granddaughter in the blaze, came to the building in search of an unopened Christmas present that Maria had intended to give to their mom.
The 56-year-old fire victim who lived on the third floor didn’t make it to a family get-together on Christmas because she had to work as a home-care attendant.
“She never got to give it to my mom,” he said. “She had so much work that she never had time to see my mother.”
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