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Tulsa apartment complex mourns fire victims

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TULSA -- It’s been one week since the deadly apartment fire in Tulsa near 61st and Riverside. The apartment complex is coming together to mourn the victims.

Shingles are uprooted, the frame of a window barely stands, and the side of a building is boarded up.

“When I got out, I just texted everybody really and made sure that everybody was ok," resident Michael Wise said. “It was more so crazy to think that I had been here and was completely oblivious to the whole thing going on around me."

Wise says he was home last Friday when the fire started.

“We had found out and then we went to go see and check on a friend," he said.

Four apartments caught fire just after 2 a.m. last Friday. Fire crews say it trapped five people inside an upstairs apartment after a stairway collapsed. Six people were sent to the hospital, three died.

"Just donations of clothes and items that they might need for their home and money is an option," Sand Dollar property manager Debbi Necessary-Roberts said.

Management had grief counselors on site as well as a community gathering for all residents..

"We're just heartfelt about the families and are trying to be here for them and answer questions and just to really be here," Necessary-Roberts said.

One of the victims is a longtime KJRH employee Terry Hargraves. His sister was at the gathering to mourn a man loved by so many.

“With time comes a little bit of healing," Wise said.

A pink ribbon blows in the wind. It's the only sign of color and for some it’s a sign of hope.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Donations can be dropped off at the front office.

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