Firefighters Wives Association president spearheads fire victim aid

FALL RIVER — With a few minutes to spare between her full-time job and a second job at night, Sharron Schoonover Furtado squeezed in time for a quick phone interview on Thursday related to helping the victims of the Four Winds fire.

As president of the Firefighters Wives Association, Schoonover Furtado was one of the first to start organizing assistance for those who lost their residences and all their possessions in the New Year’s Day fire at the Fall River complex.

The Firefighters Wives Association started back in 2012 when Schoonover Furtado and a group of firefighters’ wives spearheaded an effort to help 20 people who were left homeless after a fire destroyed a multi-family home on Hood Street.

Through a Firefighters Wives Association Facebook page, the group obtained enough donations of furniture, household goods and clothing to fill a warehouse back in 2012. Since then, many of the firefighters whose wives were involved in the group have retired and it’s been tough to retain people because of the amount of work involved in fundraising, she said.

Today, she said there are only a handful of people are involved with the group and most are friends or firefighters including her husband, Jimmy Furtado, who has been a firefighter for 27 years. Though busy with two jobs, she said what drives her to continue the effort is simple: “I just like helping people.”

Now, faced with largest displacement of people due to a fire in the city in at least a couple decades, Schoonover Furtado said volunteers are welcome and they don’t have to be wives of firefighters to get involved with the organization. “We’ll take anybody,” she said, adding some of the former members of the group have reached out to her to offer assistance. “When a big thing like this happens they contact me.”

A reported 84 residents of Four Winds were left homeless after a car crashed into building 15 of the apartment complex on Jan. 1, causing a massive fire. A day later, the 36-apartment building was demolished in an effort to fully extinguish the fire.

Since starting the Firefighters Wives Association seven years ago, Schoonover Furtado has learned a few things about the needs of those devastated by fire. The initial need, she said, is money and gift cards to help people get back on their feet and into a new apartment. Back in 2012, the group filled a warehouse with donated clothing, furniture and household goods. But through feedback from fire victims they learned the most essential need was money so they eventually sold off the donated goods in bulk to raise money to help fire victims. 

This time around, she hopes to raise a substantial amount of money to help the Four Winds fire victims through a fundraiser planned at Boneheads Live in Fall River on Feb. 2. She also set up a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $8,000 of a goal of $50,000 as of Friday afternoon. Monetary donations can also be dropped off at Fall River Fire Department Headquarters at 140 Commerce Drive or to the Firefighters Wives Association account at Saint Anne’s Credit Union branches.

Resource fairs to help those who have been displaced by the fire will be held Sunday, Jan. 6, from noon to 4 p.m. and Tuesday, Jan. 8, from 1 to 7 p.m. at Government Center.