'We are all OK': Dozens displaced in massive fire at Bellevue apartment complex

As his wife and 3-year-old daughter stood beside him in tears Monday night, Ganesh Ravella watched their building burn.

The apartment in Bellevue was the only home the family has known in Nashville, where they've lived since moving to the city in 2016.

"We lost everything," Ravella said as he stood outside a charred building at Creekwood Apartments off U.S. 70, west of Nashville.

He watched as his neighbors experiencing the same fate cried, too.

But Ravella remained composed, noting the loss of old family photos and heirlooms, while commending the Nashville Fire Department for its work.

"We are all OK," he said.

Up to 80 residents now without a home

The massive fire that broke out around 6:30 p.m. Monday burned 24 units and destroyed the apartment building, the fire department reported Tuesday.

Interim Fire Chief William Swann estimated up to 80 residents will be out of their homes in the meantime.

A small handful of them — around a dozen — were taking shelter in the nearby Bellevue Church of Christ, where the Red Cross was setting up a temporary shelter.

As volunteers and residents covered up with blankets and sipped Styrofoam cups of coffee, Swann gave them the limited information he had: homes were destroyed and officials still didn't know the cause of the fire, but no one was hurt.

"Some of you may have lost everything," Swann said to the small group gathered at the church. "If you can find a silver lining in it, just focus on the fact that you're still here, and so is your family."

In the pajamas they were wearing when the fire alarm went off, Jennifer Locke and her boyfriend, Joey Hrasna, still had logistics to figure out.

Locke's children, whom she quickly managed to get in their coats and shoes, had been picked up by Hrasna's father, along with the family cat that firefighters managed to rescue before it was too late.

But with medicine, car keys, phone chargers, their wallets and everything else left in the house, it remained to be seen what would be salvageable — and when.

"We've had several fires there over the years, but never like this," said Locke, who has lived at the complex for seven and a half years and remembers isolated units being damaged in fires. "I've never seen it go from one unit to another to another so fast."

Mayor responds to scene in show of support

As fire crews worked to extinguish the massive blaze, Mayor Megan Barry and council member Sheri Weiner, who represents the district where the complex is located, were among those at the scene.

"Anytime we've got 60 units that go up in flames and families impacted is a total tragedy," said Mayor Megan Barry, when only preliminary information was available during an initial news conference at the scene of the fire.

Weiner was not far away at the Nashville Public Library's Bellevue branch when she heard news of the fire and turned around to see the smoke.

"Bellevue wraps its arms around its folks," Weiner said at the scene, adding that she would help start a GoFundMe page to collect donations for the residents displaced by the fire.

Investigators were working late Monday to determine what caused the fire, though a final determination likely won't be made for another day or two, said fire department spokesman Joseph Pleasant.

The preliminary investigation indicates the cause of the fire is not suspicious, according to officials.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.