Three families are homeless after fire tore through their apartment complex in Myrtle Beach Wednesday.

By Stephen DiFranco

Wednesday, April 09, 2008 at 11:36 p.m.

One man who lived next door to the apartment where the fire started jumped two-stories to escape the flames.

The fire could be seen shooting through the roof at the Wildwood Apartments on 65th Avenue North in Myrtle Beach.

The fire started in Jorge Cruz's apartment. It's a total loss.

"I don't know what happened," said Cruz. He had already gone to work for the day and later got a call that his home was on fire.

Cruz said, "The Red Cross is going to help pay the hotel to stay for 3 nights." His landlord and the Red Cross are working to find him a new home after the 3 days expire at the hotel.

Rick Taylor with the Coastal Chapter of the American Red Cross said, "You've got everything that you want and all of the sudden you don't have anything left and it's very difficult for folks."

Next door to Cruz, Roman Turcanu had just worked the night shift at Kroger and woke up, his bedroom filled with smoke.

Roman tried to smash and then crawl out the bedroom window, but it was locked.

"I just broke the window but I can't get out," said Turcanu.

He ended-up smashing-out the window in his bathroom, squeezed out the tiny opening and leapt head first.

Amazingly, Turcanu suffered no broken bones.

He's from eastern Europe and was grateful to later retrieve his passport and other belongings out of his apartment.

"It's a good thing they did have a couple firewalls here, it stopped it from spreading to the left and to the right," said Courtney Smith with A & I Fire and Restoration.

Smith said it was that firewall that saved the rest of Wildwood's tenants from losing their homes as well.

A Myrtle Beach firefighter, Ricky Gunter was injured when part of the roof collapsed on top of him. Gunter has since been treated and released from the hospital.

Damage is estimated at around $100,000. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Story from WPDE