Cinnamon Riddell said she left her apartment with just the clothes she was wearing and nothing more. Then she stood on the sidewalk and watched every material thing in her life burn to ashes.

“If you think about it, at no point in your life do you have nothing,” she said, although that’s exactly what she has now. Nothing.

In the wake of the fire last Wednesday that destroyed her apartment building, Riddell is staying in a hotel room while she looks frantically for a new apartment for herself and her four children, who are staying with their father and a friend.

She is just one of the victims of the fire that engulfed the six-unit apartment building at 195 Brown St. While she has relied on the help of local social service groups, friends and Westbrook residents, other victims of the fire have sought refuge with their families.

Immediately following the fire, the local chapter of the American Red Cross provided food, shelter, clothing and, in some cases, medication to the now-homeless residents of the apartment building.

Red Cross Director of Community Support Shawna Shigro-Rogers said some of the victims needed immediate medication and were treated on the scene. After the fire, the Red Cross provided some of the victims with vouchers for rooms at the Super 8 Motel, food at Shaw’s and clothes at Wal-Mart.

The Red Cross and the Salvation Army have been assisting victims of the fire. Lorraine King, a Salvation Army volunteer, said the Red Cross gave them vouchers to stay until Friday at the hotel, and then the Salvation Army donated vouchers to get them through the weekend.

Capt. Melissa Nataluk of the Salvation Army said they’re now trying to help the victims locate apartments. Members of the Frenchtown Neighborhood Association and the People’s Regional Opportunity Program are also helping in the effort to locate apartments for their displaced neighbors.

Nataluk said it’s vital the victims know they have people helping them out so they don’t feel as though they’ve been abandoned. “Their biggest concern is getting forgotten and left,” she said. “They’re fragile.”

Riddell said the Red Cross and Salvation Army, along with her friends, have been extremely helpful. She said others have tried to help in ways that she was unable to accept. People have approached her friends offering money, and one woman approached her at a store and offered her money, which, while very generous, was embarrassing for her.

“I was so embarrassed,” she said. “It’s a lot easier if it’s an organization.”

Riddell said the hardest thing so far has been not having any identification. She left the fire with no possessions whatsoever, including her driver’s license. Luckily her mother had a copy of her birth certificate, which she said has been her saving grace.

She said she went to Wal-Mart with a voucher for $900 and realized she had to purchase her entire material world. She said she had to stop and breathe for a few minutes before she could get down to the work of clothing her children.

“I was like, ‘Where do I start?'” she said. “I need everything. Everything.”

Right now Riddell said she’s just trying to concentrate on the innumerable things she has to do to try to right her ship in this storm. She said she makes a list every night of things to do the next morning, and then in the morning she figures out the rest of her day. At night she touches base with her kids so she can keep some semblance of a routine with them.

“I have to be strong for my kids. My arms are up – I’m just attacking one task at a time,” she said. “It’s too much for me to look back and feel sorry for myself.” She said she’d have time to do that when she and her kids are in a new apartment.

“I’m looking for a three-bedroom apartment,” she said. “I just need an apartment for my kids.”

Riddell said she’s having trouble finding an apartment in Westbrook, especially because she’s looking for Section 8 housing. She also said she wishes she had had renters insurance and will never go without it again.

Of the other victims, Nataluk said most of them are doing pretty well, although none of them had renters insurance, either. Two of the tenants had cats, one of which was seen recently in the neighborhood and the other rescued from the fire by a firefighter.

The black cat rescued from the fire, Io, who belonged to Dean Hamlin, was held for two hours while the fire burned before being returned to his owner.

After that, he stayed with a neighbor until being taken to the Animal Emergency Clinic on Warren Avenue, where he died from smoke inhalation at around 8:30 a.m. Friday.

Dr. Carol Wolf said he had suffered from bad smoke inhalation and his lungs had inflamed. She said it was just too traumatic an incident, that animals can suffer the worst because toxins that burn fall near the ground.

“He gave it his best shot,” said Wolf. “It was very sad.”

An April 26 fire destroyed this Brown Street apartment building, leaving six families homeless.Friends and neigbors watch in disbelief as fire destroys an apartment building on Brown Street last week.Lori Brogan is held by friends while she watches the remains of her apartment building at 195 Brown Street smolder under the hoses of fire fighters on April 26.

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