Tenants displaced by Squirrel Hill apartment fire take it 'one day at a time'

Matthew Stock has his keys, wallet and phone but little else.

He suspects the rest of his possessions were lost Tuesday in a fire that gutted a nearly century-old apartment building on Forward Avenue in Squirrel Hill.

The 35-year-old is unemployed and was looking for a new job before the fire

His sister is giving him a place to stay and he’s seeking what help others can provide as he figures out what’s next.

Other residents of the 30-unit building are in a similar predicament.

Stock may set up a GoFundMe page as others have already done. As of Wednesday afternoon there were three fundraisers set up on the site to crowdfund relief efforts.

Stock and his sister stopped by the building Wednesday and found the street remained closed. Firefighters were able to get his keys, wallet and phone from the second-story apartment where Stock had lived for about five years.

“I only asked them to get me the bare essentials, I didn’t think it was worth asking them to get me anything else,” Stock said. “I’m taking it one day at a time.”

It took less than a day for Shalyn Faison to get a replacement birth certificate, she said.

The 22-year-old also lived on the building’s second floor.

She said she had a $2,000 laptop she used for gaming, an air fryer, kitchen table and bed.

“I think it’s all gone,” Faison said. “I’ll let it go.”

She considers herself lucky because she has a job as a transporter at UPMC Shadyside. It has benefits like paid time off, which will help as she works to find a new apartment.

Two other tenants also worked at the hospital, she said.

A Philadelphia native, Faison initially was a student at the University of Pittsburgh, but school is on a back burner now. She planned to move east when her lease was up next year.

Those plans have changed, she said, and she didn’t exactly know what she was going to do next.

“Honestly, I will settle for whatever … I’m kind of like alone,” Faison said. “I supposed in a way, I should be more broken up than I am. It was a whole lot of money spent on a whole lot of stuff there.”

She feels worst about a hoodie her boyfriend treasured that was likely burned in the fire.

“It had a lot of meaning. I feel really bad,” she said.

People from a variety of organizations have stepped up to help those displaced by the fire, Pittsburgh Councilwoman Barb Warwick said.

The American Red Cross has set up a shelter at Magee Recreation Center in nearby Greenfield. Six people spent Tuesday night there, said Warwick, a Democrat from Greenfield.

“Our office is gathering a list of resources,” she said. “If folks have difficulty, my office is there to help with that navigation.”

The fire took more than four hours to extinguish and required a response from half of the city’s 34 engine companies, fire Chief Daryl Jones said.

No one was hurt, and a cause remains undetermined, according to public safety officials.

“It was pretty astonishing to be down at the scene and watching our firefighters dumping so much water … very scary,” Warwick said. “The building is going to have to be demolished.”

The building is owned by Sheldon Zytnick, according to Allegheny County property tax records. He did not immediately return messages seeking comment.