An apartment fire last Friday left two families with only the clothes on their back.

That’s when the Red Cross’ disaster action team took charge and provided them with immediate assistance. Now, the families continue to put their lives back together this week.

“There were two units that we responded to, a total of six occupants, and we’ve assisted both families and put both of them in hotels as well as completed case work while providing that financial assistance for their immediate needs,” said TaWanna Robbins, disaster program specialist with the local Red Cross. “Usually once the fire department comes in and puts the fire out, they refer the clients to the Red Cross to our disaster action team.”

Robbins said both families’ homes were considered a total loss, leaving them without food or clothes.

The fire happened Friday morning around 5 a.m. at the Les Chateaus Apartments on the 1000 block of Medical Center Parkway, destroying two apartments and leaving the other two conjoining apartments with smoke and water damage.

“We make a determination whether or not the family needs short term housing, and once that’s determined … we’ll go ahead and fix them in a hotel for a few nights,” Robbins said. “Once that has taken place, we work with the family to assist them in their immediate needs. That includes financial assistance for clothing, food and medications, transportation costs, all those basic necessities is what we assist with.”

Robbins said the Red Cross will also refer the families to long term recovery partners in the area after their basic needs are met.

Although she said she couldn’t give out specifics about the families, Robbins said if anyone wants to directly help the two families, they can contact the Red Cross and they will reach out to the families and see if they would like the personal assistance.

“We always ask our citizens, or our community partners, to donate to Red Cross because those donor dollars do go back to the fire victims. Fires are our number one cause of disasters in our area,” Robbins said. “Our number one mission is to respond and to alleviate human suffering as a result of disasters.”

Anyone wanting to help the families can reach out to the Red Cross by calling (334) 874-4641 and asking for the disaster action team.