Victims scramble to recover following deadly Md. fire

A man looks at the Flower Branch apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Thursday, August 11, 2016, the day after a deadly fire swept through the building. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)
A man looks at the Flower Branch apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Thursday, August 11, 2016, the day after a deadly fire swept through the building. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)
Silver Spring
The view from a nearby parking lot on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, shows the damage from an explosion and fire at the Flower Branch Apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)
Silver Spring
Grace Rivera, long time area resident and active in the immigrant community, listens to woman who lost everything, including cash savings, in the Flower Branch Apartments fire in Silver Spring, Maryland. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)
Silver Spring Fire
A man looks at the Flower Branch apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, the day after a deadly fire swept through the building. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)
Silver Spring Fire
Emergency units are seen on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, in Silver Spring, Maryland, the day after a major fire swept through the Flower Branch Apartments. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)
Photo shows Flower Branch apartment explosion in Silver Spring
The view from a nearby parking lot on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, shows the damage from an explosion and fire at the Flower Branch Apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)
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A man looks at the Flower Branch apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Thursday, August 11, 2016, the day after a deadly fire swept through the building. (WTOP/Kate Ryan)
Silver Spring
Silver Spring
Silver Spring Fire
Silver Spring Fire
Photo shows Flower Branch apartment explosion in Silver Spring

SILVER SPRING, Md. — They grabbed what they could and got out. That’s what residents of the Flower Branch Apartments say they did when they heard the explosion and watched as fire tore through the apartment complex in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The day after, Thursday, those who weren’t injured began the process of finding shelter and coming up with plans of what to do next.

But for some residents, like a distraught woman outside of the Long Branch Community Center in Silver Spring, future plans were up in smoke. That woman left the center with tears running down her cheeks, and she crumpled under the weight of her grief.

Grace Rivera, a county resident who’s served on the board of directors at CASA of Maryland, held the distraught woman in her arms and directed her to agencies that could help.

“She’s lost it all,” Rivera explained to a reporter.

“She’s from Guatemala, and she brought one daughter here. She had saved enough to bring the second daughter,” but the money to do that wasn’t in a bank. The cash savings had been stashed in her apartment … now destroyed by fire.

Rivera said many of the residents of the apartments are recent immigrants from Guatemala and El Salvador. Some have documents allowing them to be in this country — others don’t. And for that reason, Rivera said, many were reluctant to come forward for help.

At Mary’s Center, Director of Site Services Zulma Aparicio echoed Montgomery County officials who urged those affected to take advantage of the help being made available.

Kate Ryan

As a member of the award-winning WTOP News, Kate is focused on state and local government. Her focus has always been on how decisions made in a council chamber or state house affect your house. She's also covered breaking news, education and more.

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