Brenda Andino, of Hazleton, had just woken up when she suddenly heard a bang and her nephew told her to run out of their apartment.

“As I was running out the door, I looked back and I saw a bright orange glow under my nephew’s closed bedroom door,” Andino said. “You could tell the room was on fire.”

As soon as she and her nephew made it outside, they heard a blast.

“It was like a bomb went off,” Andino said.

Two days prior, Andino’s nephew bought an electric scooter. He was charging it in his room the day of the blast. He heard a hissing sound, immediately unplugged the charger and ran.

“There were massive clouds of black smoke. You couldn’t see or anything,” Andino said. “It shook our whole home.”

Andino said her nephew’s entire bedroom caught fire, and everything in it was destroyed.

“Thank God he wasn’t sleeping that morning when it happened,” Andino said.

Andino said her whole apartment was damaged by water and smoke went all the way up to the third floor, causing her neighbors to evacuate their homes as well.

“The Red Cross – you guys helped us right away,” Andino said. “You took action and gave us what we needed at that moment – to get to a safe place – and then helped us move on and helped us with what we lost in that fire."

Andino worked with a Red Cross caseworker named Roxanna Pifer who helped Andino through the recovery process. Andino said she used the financial assistance given to her by the Red Cross to put a deposit down on a new apartment.

“I have my own apartment again because of the help you guys gave me,” Andino said. “When you have people like that who go out of their way to really help with compassion and with love and patience… these are people you really have to appreciate. [Pifer] went above and beyond her duties.”

Although this home fire was a tragedy, Andino said this situation gave her a new sense of hope.

“You know, there is love in this world. When you receive it, you gotta pay it forward,” Andino said.