Victims of a massive fire that gutted six apartment buildings and several businesses returned home Thursday to collect personal belongings.

Joseph Ramos clutched a white garbage bag full of papers and other personal documents as he stood with a houseplant at his feet and his wife Sonia by his side. Ramos says after seven years of living in the Dekalb Avenue apartment, they have lost everything.

The fire tore through Bushwick Tuesday night around 10 p.m., displacing dozens of people and destroying homes and businesses.

Among the lost were hundreds of trained homing pigeons that Ramos says a neighbor kept on the roof of one of the buildings.

Dianne Perez lived at 1427 Dekalb Ave. until flames scorched the building. Investigators say they believe the fire started there.

"Everything went up in a blaze," Perez says, including her father's ashes. He had just died a month ago.

"There's literally nothing left of my father but this car," she says of the red Cadillac he gave her before his death. But the fire destroyed her keys.

Many other residents also lost their car keys, so a local locksmith spent the afternoon volunteering his services to help people get back into their vehicles.

Gil Agront, the locksmith, says it normally costs between $200 and $300 to access cars and make new keys when the old ones are lost.

"I'm a longtime resident of Bushwick," Agront says. "Anything I can do to help them out with their keys, I'm here to help them." 

The Red Cross says at least 60 people lived in the badly burned buildings, and that 21 families were displaced.