A fire severely damaged the inside of the home of two Gainesville residents Wednesday afternoon.
SFC student Kaitlin Galmiche, 20, left the duplex at 1835 N.W. Fifth Ave. on Tuesday night. She returned home Wednesday about 3 p.m. to find the house in flames and fire trucks parked in her driveway.
"I don't know what happened," Galmiche said, tears streaming down her face and clutching a brown stuffed teddy bear, her only possession to make it through the fire.
"Not one thing survived," she said. "My clothes, my room, everything is gone."
The structure of the house was still standing, and the other half of the duplex was not damaged.
Galmiche's roommate, Carson DiBenedetto, 21, said he was sleeping in his room when he smelled the smoke.
"The fire alarm went off, and I started yelling for Kaitlin," DiBenedetto said. "I couldn't see anything, couldn't breathe. The whole house was filled with smoke."
DiBenedetto said he kicked down Galmiche's door and did his best to put out the fire with an extinguisher.
"It looked like the fire was coming from her TV," he said.
When the flames began growing, DiBenedetto said he ran over to the neighbors' and called the fire department.
Gainesville Fire Rescue received a call that smoke was coming from a duplex-style building behind The Swamp Restaurant about 1:40 p.m., District Chief Richard Saulsberry said.
Six units showed up and were able to put the fire out in two minutes, Saulsberry said.
"It was a quick knockdown of the fire," he said.
Both roommates said they have no idea what started the fire, and they are just happy to be OK.
The fire is currently under investigation, Saulsberry said.
