Families displaced by a hotel fire early Friday will be spending the holiday at Walt Disney World, a Florida congressman who helped broker the deal said. U.S. Rep.
Darren Soto, an Orlando Democrat who represents the 9th District, said 40-60 families who had been staying at Kissimmee Middle School as a shelter after a fire at the Unno Boutique Hotel on U.S. 192 displaced them would be staying on Disney property for two nights.
He also said they’d receive free park tickets.
The Unno Boutique Hotel caught fire shortly before 4:45 a.m. Friday, firefighters said. From Skywitness 9, crews could be seen demolishing portions of the fire-ravaged building Friday afternoon. Yasmin Carlson, who lived in a room at the motel, said she grabbed her cat and evacuated.
"At first, I thought it was just a drill,” Carlson said. “It didn't take long for me to realize this [was] real when I saw the smoke from the opposite end of the building."
Carlson watched on as workers knocked down portions of the damaged structure. "I don't know what's going to happen,” she said. “I just hope they can save the rest of the rooms and our last belongings.”
Gisela and Joshua Pacheco said they had just moved to the hotel in May. They said they relocated to the Kissimmee-area from Pennsylvania in search of a better life.
“It was kind of like [an] unreal kind of feeling,” Gisela Pacheco said. “Looking around, just seeing people running out little by little.”
The couple said they struggled to explain things to their children while they watched flames engulf their home and all their possessions.
“You're just sitting there, watching. There's nothing you can do” Joshua Pacheco said. “When you have thousands of dollars of property in your room -- and that's your life, that's what you've worked so hard for. It's just -- it's tough.”
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