Man recalls devastating Pittsburgh apartment fire one year later

PITTSBURGH — Channel 11 spent the day with the man Pittsburgh nicknamed Shoeless Matt, after he left his apartment with only the clothes on his back. He explained how he was able to build his life back, a year after losing everything.

“I remember thinking, ‘wow, hard to believe I was there for so long and now it’s just *snaps* like that’” said Matthew Stock, a victim in a massive apartment fire on Forward Avenue.

Stock ran out of his apartment nearly a year ago as it went up in flames.

>>Click here for more photos from the scene<<

“I remember sitting with you over there in the Lifetime Auto Center,” said reporter Addison Albert while talking with Stock. “We were sitting there for, I want to say, a few hours.”

“Yeah,” Stock responded. “Everyone was still trying to figure out if the building was going to be salvaged or not. There was the whole, ‘well there’s a lot of smoke, and oh there’s a lot of fire in that corner so maybe not and it’s going through the whole roof. I guess no one is going back in any time soon.’”

In the following days, Matt was coined “Shoeless Matt,” even making it the name of his GoFundMe page. He said he still can’t believe the amount of help he received almost immediately.

“Thanks to my sister and my family and you guys who got my story out there. It’s actually been a lot better than I would have expected,” Stock said.

He also took our crew to the Magee Rec Center where the Red Cross housed some of the homeless tenants for several days.

“So, one person was on the far end as I recall,” he said. “And the other two people were over in that direction closer to the basketball hoop. We are all pretty spread out, and no one was particularly feeling that social.”

He said he’s still grateful for the care he received. He tells Channel 11 the landlords of the building that burnt down actually found him new housing a few weeks after the fire at the same rate. He’s been able to get a new job, a new wardrobe, and of course new shoes.

For a year now, Zytnick Realty has not answered Channel 11’s messages or emails about the future of the property. The city of Pittsburgh also told Channel 11 that no one has applied for a permit for the property in the past year.

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