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Single mother loses everything in apartment fire, struggling to pick up the pieces
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BATON ROUGE- Four Baton Rouge families are displaced after their apartment building on Bles Avenue caught fire. Shonquell Leblanc is one of those affected by the tragedy.
"I'm basically homeless, me and my kids, we have nothing," Leblanc told WBRZ.
However, she is not the only one displaced. Her neighbors are feeling helpless too.
"We have our lives but we lost everything. We can't get it back and it's uncomfortable," Leblanc said.
Although her unit was not severely burned, it does have a lot of smoke and water damage. Leblanc says Red Cross came out, but they only gave her $600. She is currently in school to become a licensed esthetician. She says this tragedy could derail plans for her and her two kids.
"Not knowing where you're going to stay right now is stressful. I'm a parent, I'm supposed to have the answers. I'm already supposed to have the plan together."
WBRZ used camera equipment to provide Leblanc with enough light to find priceless items in the rubble.
"Pictures, these are pictures of me and my babies when we were living in the shelter," Leblanc said while pulling a zip loc bag of photos out of a wet, dark closet.
She was able to salvage some sentimental items, but all of their clothes, her children's toys, and home furniture are gone.
"I was hurt, and I don't think nobody understands because I've come a long way. I'm doing a lot to better for me and my kid's life."
Leblanc says she was just beginning to put the pieces of her life back together. Now she has to start all over again.
"We came from a shelter and we moved here... and to be homeless now, it sucks."
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