'Keep moving forward': Squirrel Hill residents look ahead after massive apartment blaze

What saddens Matthew Stock most about the Pittsburgh fire that left him homeless this week is a baby blanket his great-grandmother gifted him on the day he was born.

Stock would walk past the heirloom every day, without much thought, in the one-bedroom Forward Avenue apartment where he had lived for five years. Its soft pastel colors had remained emotive for more than three decades.

A blaze that drew 73 firefighters to Squirrel Hill Tuesday destroyed that.

After the flames were extinguished, firefighters asked Stock what they could salvage from from his former home inside a gutted, century-old building that sits a stone’s throw from the Squirrel Hill Tunnel.

“I told them to get the necessities,” said Stock, 35, sitting on shaded steps Friday morning after waking from the cot the American Red Cross had lent him at a Greenfield recreation center, his temporary home. “The sentimental stuff would be great, don’t get me wrong. But ultimately it was a choice between what I needed to survive and what makes me feel good. And I chose what I needed to survive.”

The firefighters found Stock’s Motorola cellphone, which survived the blaze with 86% of its battery life. A wallet with his ID. The keys to the used sedan he bought before his dad died six years ago.

“The blanket, it was always there — and you think, ‘If something happens, something will take care of it,’ ” said Stock, pausing to collect a thought. “I was hoping to give that to my son one day. I guess I won’t be doing that now.”

Demolition to begin

City officials condemned what was left of the three-story Jefferson Apartments building — large chunks of its roof and walls had collapsed, its glass windows were punched out or shattered.

On Friday, as strands of yellow police tape fluttered in the breeze around metal fences surrounding the husk of a building, the city issued a demolition permit at the site, spokeswoman Olga George told TribLive. Work is expected to be completed Friday night or Saturday.

The building’s owner, Sheldon Zytnick, had hired a local company, Schaaf Excavating Contractors, to demolish the building, its hazards amplified by the threat of a potentially imminent collapse.

Zytnick, who has not spoken with reporters, contacted tenants Tuesday night, one resident told TribLive. He plans to pro-rate their rent and refund their security deposits.

Mark Goldberg sat Friday afternoon outside the 20-unit apartment building he owns next door to what’s left of Jefferson Apartments.

He, too, is concerned for his tenants — and says city officials haven’t even told them whether it’s safe for them to return.

“We were told to evacuate — everybody had to get out Tuesday during the fire and they scattered,” said Goldberg, 84, whose father helped build the apartment complex around 1949.

A woman grabbed a broom Friday and started sweeping piles of ash and debris off the sidewalk nearby. About 10 feet — “at the most,” Goldberg added — separated the fire-ravaged building from Goldberg’s neighboring apartments.

“I’m just hopeful that, when they start the demolition at that building next door, they don’t cause any structural damage here,” Goldberg said.

Another resident of Jefferson Apartments — Shalyn Faison, 22, who lived in a studio apartment on the building’s second floor — focused Friday on the practical. The Philadelphia native said she needed time. So, she called off from her job at UPMC Shadyside hospital and moved in with a friend while hunting for a new home.

Faison and others orphaned by flames — public safety officials said about 30 people were affected but none injured — sought public support this week through GoFundMe fundraisers. Some — including one for Stock — had raised thousands of dollars in just days.

More than 72 hours after fire destroyed a Squirrel Hill apartment building, firefighters remain at work Friday morning. ⁦@TribLIVE⁩ pic.twitter.com/70JDZvGUM5

— Tom Davidson (@TribDavidson) September 12, 2025

Fire investigators plan to announce their findings soon about what triggered the blaze, public safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz told TribLive.

Some details felt surreal. Faison planned to donate blood this week. Her heart rate was speeding so fast after the fire, she had to reschedule.

“My mind has been racing every second,” Faison told TribLive.

Faison’s neighbors are helping her process what is happening.

“It’s unfortunate that this is what’s brought us together,” she told TribLive on Friday. “Hopefully we can form relationships moving forward.”

‘I’ll cry about it later’

Stock also is keeping his eyes focused forward.

He didn’t want to think about losing those two leather-bound albums of family photos. Or the oil painting of a landscape — “of a sky, lots of trees and little glimpses of a town,” Stock said — that his father left him.

“In situations like this, it’s honestly probably best to realize that everyone’s doing what they need to do to survive, everyone’s doing whatever they can do to help,” Stock said. “And that helps me stay grounded.”

He is not struggling to rebound alone. He used some of the $350 the American Red Cross gave him to trek to Target and buy sneakers: size 10. He walked out of his apartment Tuesday morning in bare feet, not anticipating the worst from the blaring smoke alarms.

Stock lost his job in May but continues to collect unemployment payments. He’s now searching for nearby Airbnb rentals; the company gifted him a $3,500 credit to help with temporary housing. The CEO of a former employer also cut Stock a check for $2,500 more — “just to help out,” Stock said.

“The things I’ll miss the most are the sentimental stuff — you can’t replace those,” Stock said. “Maybe I’ll cry about it later. Maybe it will be hard when I get back on my feet. But, for now, I’ve just gotta keep going forward.”

Related:

• Tenants displaced by Squirrel Hill apartment fire take it 'one day at a time'
• Squirrel Hill apartment building ravaged by stubborn fire

Justin Vellucci and Tom Davidson are TribLive staff writers. They can reached at jvellucci@triblive.com and tdavidson@triblive.com.