Round Rock community comes together after fire displaces 22 residents

AUSTIN, Texas - Its been almost two weeks since a fire at a Round Rock apartment complex damaged several buildings and displaced 22 people. Now, residents of The Landing have bonded together to help those residents who were left with a destroyed home and only the clothes on their backs.

Two weeks ago, Allison Noble and Steve Kutz were at home when a fire broke out in the apartment right above them. “We were notified when someone knocked on our door and said the roof is on fire,” said Kutz.

They say they were able to grab their dogs, IDs, and a couple of other items, but everything else was damaged.

“When somebody works their whole life for something and it disappears in front of their eyes, it's a tough pill to swallow,” said resident Matthew Miller.

Miller has lived at The Landing apartments with his family for the past two years. When he and his wife heard how the fire was affecting their neighbors, they decided to take action, “We took it upon ourselves to start gathering donations."

The Millers were able to collect clothing, hats, shoes, pet food, toiletries, blankets, and more.

RELATED: Residents of Round Rock apartment complex evacuated after fire

“We've pretty much got everything you can possibly think of. What you see before you is pretty much the donations from this community, from other communities, other people in churches, and businesses that have donated,” Miller said.

The family decided to open up shop right in their garage and have victims of the fire, like Noble and Kutz, come out and take anything they needed.

“It's very heartwarming. It brings a tear to my eye,” said Noble.

All the donations were collected in just a week. Miller says he hopes these material items bring a little relief to those who struggled.

“It's not going to fully take away the pain that they have from the fire, and the loss of a lot of their property and other things, but at least this may take the sting out of it,” he said.