FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - Tatiana Jackson, her husband and three kids had to evacuate their apartment after their building went up in flames.

Tatiana has lived at Baldwin Creek Apartments for five years, she says it was painful to see it for the first time since it caught fire.

“It hurts, because we were hopeful we were gonna be able to get in and just grab necessities for the kids and when the fire restarted we were just like ‘oh’, it just kind of put a pause,” says Tatiana.

She tells 21Alive her family didn’t think much of the fire alarm went it went off, she says it’s pretty common in their building. Then, she heard someone running down the hall screaming the word “fire,” that’s when they evacuated.

Now, a few days later, Tatiana is reflecting on those five years that are now up in flames, “Everything we’ve lost and everything we’ve worked so hard for, our kid’s loss most importantly, what they lost in the fire and then everybody else, we just wanted to make sure everybody was out.”

Now, the family is figuring out what to do next.

“Our focus is our kids right now, the community has just been so wonderful we can’t thank them enough, we have a home temporarily, our next step is just making sure our kids are comfortable because they’re not used to that,” says Tatiana.

The Jacksons will be staying in a hotel for the time being along with the 22 other families that were displaced from the fire.

The leasing office is still accepting donations, to find out how to help, go to our previous coverage linked here.

The Fort Wayne Fire Department confirmed the fire was caused by a faulty heating/air conditioning unit and is classified as accidental.