WILMERDING (KDKA) — A local church is helping out the 25 tenants who lost everything in a fire that destroyed an apartment building in Wilmerding.

Adam Weyer was in his second-floor apartment when the fire started. He and his family got out with their lives and little else.

“Everything we’ve worked for is in that apartment, destroyed,” he said.

But the tenants and the owner of the building who lost his business found refuge with the angels.

“[Michael] Reed is a wonderful guy in our community and he offered to make dinner and lunch for everybody,” Jim Filia, the building’s owner, said.

Holy Angels Lutheran Church in Wilmerding fed the people who lost everything and offered them clothing from its Angels In The Attic thrift store.

“Thank you so much – you made my day,” Crystale Augustine, a fire victim, said. “Everything’s gone. I have nothing left. My pets are dead.”

Robert Bayer and Amber Batzel believe their 3-year-old son set the fire with a cigarette lighter. The family lived in the apartment for nearly three years but was being evicted.

“They were supposed to be out by today,” Filia said.

The building also housed a sports bar and a pizza shop. The owner says a lot of people depended on the building.

“I’d like to rebuild, this is my community, I love the community and good people,” he said.

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