Seven residents are left without a home after investigators said a "suspicious" fire destroyed a Palmetto triplex on Friday.
Maria and husband Harold Trahan revisited the home they rented for 20 years on the northeast corner of Fourth Street W and Seventh Avenue W on Sunday. Now it is a burnt, unlivable, skeleton of a structure.
“We came out alive," said Maria to Harold, crying. "To think if it wasn’t for our neighbors we wouldn’t be standing here.”
The Trahans said around 2 a.m. on Friday morning, they heard their neighbors screaming. Luckily it woke everyone in the house up.
“When we got up everything in the house was orange," Maria said. "We couldn’t get to the door cause the door was in flames.”
“We got dressed real quick and had to jump out the bathroom window,” Harold said.
Despite the intense flames and the devastating damage left behind, everyone walked away unharmed.
“We had a guardian angle looking after us and God,” said Maria holding her cross, the only possession she has left.
Crime Stoppers posters now line the outside of the charred house. Detectives are working to figure out who set the house on fire. Maria and Harold hope the authorities find those involved.
From the incident, they say, not only have they lost all their possessions they have collected over their entire lives but now they have also lost their faith in humanity.
“I never knew people could be that cruel to other people.”
With only the clothes on their backs and the love for each other, Harold whispered to Maria that they will make it through this trauma somehow.
“It will get better. Cant get much worse that’s for sure.”
The Red Cross and the Salvation Army have been helping The Trahans. They were renting the house and did not have any renters insurance.
Currently no one has been charged for the fire.
Anyone with information should call the North River Fire District or, to remain anonymous and be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000, call Crime Stoppers at 866-634-8477 (tips) or send an anonymous tip online to manateecrimestoppers.com.