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Charlotte woman who just lost husband now trying to recover from fire

By Elsa Gillis
By Elsa Gillis

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Schree White walked into her dark apartment Monday and was immediately surrounded by loss.

"Everything is just about gone," she said.

It was a week ago that fire tore through her building at Stone Gate Apartments on Southwood Oaks Lane, off Reddman Road, near Albemarle Road.

RELATED: More than 50 firefighters battle 2-alarm apartment fire in east Charlotte

"Well, I was asleep, and I woke up coughing," said White. "It was black smoke in the apartment, flames and everything.  It was a scary moment."

[PHOTOS: 2-alarm apartment fire leaves families displaced]

Her hand and foot were hurt as she ran out.

White says she was told she had just a few days to gather her belongings before the complex begins to repair her broken home. Monday, she grabbed anything she could that was left.  It was especially difficult having just lost her husband to cancer in February.

"We have a lot of memories, pictures destroyed, a lot of his stuff is destroyed," she said.

She's also trying to make sense of belongings that she says were tampered with.

Schree White's apartment

"My dining room table is on the floor.  My deep freezer was cleaned out of food.  My refrigerator was cleaned out of food," she said.

White doesn't know where she's going next. She's staying with her daughter, but says she was told the apartment complex doesn't have another one-bedroom unit she can stay in.

"I don't even know how to feel," she said.

A manager at the complex told Channel 9 that it's a private matter, and they're handling everything that they can. The American Red Cross said it is still helping eight families impacted by the fire.

Fire investigators say they have not been able to determine how the blaze began.

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