2 families looking for help after fire damages their Kennewick apartments

The two families forced from their homes by a Kennewick apartment building fire are asking for help.

Two GoFundMe campaigns were created after the blaze in an apartment kitchen on 21st Avenue.

The fire apparently started when a pan was left on a stove, said Kennewick Fire Capt. Brian Ellis.

The first-floor apartment belonging to Kyra Aviles’ sister, Kriselia and her family, was the most damaged by fire and smoke and killed their hamster, according to Ellis and the GoFundMe campaign.

Their upstairs neighbors, Laura Hathaway and her twin sister, are needing to stay at a motel after smoke damaged their unit, according to a GoFundMe campaign created by Hathaway. The two women have four children between them.

“So far, we have to stay out of our apartment for a week because of the smoke,” she wrote on the campaign. “We don’t know if we can even move back in after the week.”