Family shares the frightening scene waking up to their Palm Desert apartment on fire

10 people are without a home after a fire destroyed a group of Palm Desert apartment units.

News Channel 3's Caitlin Thropay met with one of the families who shared their frightening experience of waking up to flames taking over their home.

"I remember my brother waking me up and telling me there was a fire and I look outside my window and I see orange and red flashes as one would imagine like if it was a movie," Linda Ceniceros told News Channel 3.

It was a frightful scene for Palm Desert High School student Linda Ceniceros and the families living in these apartments. They woke up to flames and loud bangs at 1 a.m.


"And then this lady came up to me and she was like you're okay we just need you to move to the parking lot to be safe because at the moment I didn't know what to do I was staring at the flames like what is this?"

 she explained.

More than 40 firefighters and 10 fire engines rushed to the scene on Santa Rosa Way, near Portola Avenue. Flames were coming from a garage and had spread to two apartments.

"My whole kitchen was burnt down. The whole wall. Firemen had to dig into my roof which also was a part of the kitchen and part of my bathroom," she said.

Another apartment was heavily damaged by radiant heat and a fourth apartment unit only had minor damage. 



"My whole house was completely ashed," she said. "We couldn't find many clothes that were available to wear because of all those toxins," she added. Ceniceros said The Red Cross and firefighters were very helpful to her family.



"My father is a diabetic and I actually talked to them to see if they could retrieve some of his medicine and sadly the medicine had melted," she said.

Ceniceros said her family is now looking for another place to live. They set up a Go Fund Me page here.



Thankfully no one was hurt.

We still don't know the cause of the fire.