BALTIMORE — It only took Baltimore City firefighters a few minutes to arrive, but neighbors had already started trying to rescue the woman. They tried breaking windows, forcing in doors, as they heard her shouting for help from inside her row home in Greektown.
"The fire grew too bad, and there was something blocking the windows and doors on both ends. So she was kind of trapped. Her only way out was the back, but it was a wall of fire," resident Donald Philips told WMAR-2 News.
The fire spread quickly to several other homes on S. Newkirk Street. 71-year-old Patricia Lesnick didn't make it out.
" I wish we could've got to her, her dog too, her sweet little dog. It never left her side; it was her best friend,' Philips said.
Another neighbor who lost her home, Yaretzy Roblero, says her last interaction with Lesnick was when she knocked on Roblero's door and offered her family a coupon for a free turkey.
The flames never even reached Roblero's home, but the smoke and water damage was enough. Now she has to find a new place to live just before Thanksgiving.
"It's bad timing. We were planning to have that turkey that she gave us, and it's just really sad," she told WMAR-2 News' Elizabeth Worthington.
"I believe that some of the residents had renters' insurance," Tricia Kontoudis, president of the Greektown Neighborhood Association, said. "Others didn't, so that puts them in a really difficult situation, especially around the holidays."
Kontoudis says right away, people started reaching out asking how they could help. It's believed that 10 families have been impacted. The association has already raised close to $6,000.
"They are displaced, so there's really nowhere for them to put items and we don't really know what they need so the best thing to do to help them is to donate monetary donations. That will allow them to use it where they need it."
If you'd like to donate, click here.
There's still no word on what caused the fire. On Wednesday, firefighters went door to door handing out and installing smoke detectors to anyone who needed one.