GoFundMe Started For Glenmont Family Displaced By Apartment Fire

GLENMONT, MD — A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to raise money for a family that was displaced by a two-alarm fire at a Glenmont apartment complex earlier this month. Although no one was seriously injured in the Oct. 5 fire, 16 adults and five children were displaced.

Johanna Orellana organized the GoFundMe on behalf of her friend Jose Martin Castro Rivera, whose family was among those who had been displaced by the fire.

"We are hoping that with the donations from everyone, our good friend Martin and his family can recover from the unexpected loss of this devastating fire," Orellana wrote on the GoFundMe page. "The apartments completely charred but everyone made it out safely, unfortunately the families have been displaced somewhere temporarily. The families lost everything as you can imagine. "

The GoFundMe campaign's goal is to raise $10,000. As of 11 a.m., on Wednesday, 48 donors had contributed $4,500.

Units from Montgomery County Fire & Rescue responded around 11 p.m., on Oct. 5, for the report of of an apartment fire at 2370 Glenmont Circle in Glenmont.

Firefighters found smoke coming from the windows of a three-story garden apartment building and issued a second alarm, which brought more personnel and equipment to the scene, according to a post on the MCFRS' official Twitter account.

The fire originated in a couch on the exterior of the building and spread quickly to a utility closet and a common causeway for HVAC. It then spread throughout the interior of the building. Eventually, firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze.

Investigators estimated the building had sustained $600,000 in damage.