Four Winds fire victims see outpouring of support at fair

FALL RIVER — It was less than a week ago that more than 80 men, women and children lost their homes and possessions in the devastating New Year’s Day fire at the Four Winds apartment complex.

On Sunday, the families began to rebuild their lives with the help of the Red Cross, the city, local agencies and volunteers at the first of two resource fairs at Government Center.

“I think this has been unbelievably helpful and well run. I got a lot of information and what I felt I needed,” said former Four Winds resident Karen Robinson who took advantage of the resource fair at Government Center.

Holding one of the dozens of bags assembled by volunteers from the Journey Christian Church with personal care items and a folder full of paper work, Robinson said she’d registered with Catholic Social Services which will help the fire victims with housing.

Many of the residents affected by the fire met with United Way volunteers for assistance with replacing drivers licenses that had been lost in the fire.

“Things are being taken care of and moving along,” said Robinson.

Rhonda McCoughlin, the site supervisor for the Red Cross, said 18 people identified themselves as head of household and 38 of the displaced residents took advantage of the resource event.

Lloyd Ziel, chief communications officer for the Massachusetts Red Cross said the event was a multi-agency resource center that the Red Cross was facilitating.

“Our capacity today is to help get the organizations together. We have a list of about 14 organizations that are going to be here today to just help the victims,” said Ziel.

Red Cross case workers since last Tuesday’s fire have been working with the families, so far expending over $15,000 to help them with necessities.

“Talking to them and making sure that they get those groceries and get those supplies like eye glasses and if they need to get prescriptions replaced,” said Ziel.

Fall River Fire Department Emergency Management Director Richard Aguiar there is a lot of available resources to help those affected by the fire that completely destroyed the 36-unit building.

“All the agencies came together as one,” said Aguiar after a meeting at fire headquarters on Friday. “Rather than one agency helping separately we’re working as one.”

As far as the approximately 36 families and individuals left homeless by the fire, a few have been found residents by the owners of Four Winds, four are still living in hotels and about 30 are living with family and friends, Aguiar said.

The city’s Firefighters Wives Association was one of the first organizations to rally to help the fire victims. The organization’s president, Sharron Schoonover Furtado, was busy speaking with families.

“Things are going good. It’s a lot of people to take care of right now,” said Schoonover Furtado.

In addition to the resource fair Sunday afternoon, volunteers met over at the Greater Fall River Re-Creation to transport the volume of donated items to an empty store space at the Swansea Mall to sort and distribute to those affected by the fire and organized by the Firefighters Wives Association.

“I have about 40 volunteers at Swansea Mall,” said Schoonover Furtado.

Grace Gerling, Greater Fall River Re-Creation’s executive director, said the outpouring of donations was overwhelming with clothes, toiletries, baby supplies and canned goods all dropped off on Friday.

In fact, Schooner Furtado said there were so many donations they had to stop taking clothes donations for the time being, although they are still accepting toiletries and non-perishable food items.

The fundraising efforts by the Firefighters Wives Association are also going well with the GoFundMe campaign at $11,500 with a goal of raising $50,000.

“I also have other donations that are about at $10,000,” she said.

In addition to the city fire department and emergency management playing a role, the administration has been assisting as well with the Community Development Agency which funds housing programs for Catholic Social Services.

CDA raised the cap of $3,000 per family to help with short-term housing assistance to $5,000, said Special Assistant Monica Sousa.

In addition, through the mayor’s office, Sousa said she’s contacted a local locksmith to assist people who lost their car keys in the fire and the clerk’s office is waving the fee to replace birth certificates.

Workers from Catholic Social Services were filling out applications for individuals and families for help with rehousing as well as providing gift certificates for food and clothing.

Susan Mazzarella, the chief executive officer for Catholic Social Services, said the rise in the cap for housing assistance was “hugely helpful.”

“Fair-market apartments can be a little bit untenable especially when folks are struck by a profound tragedy and they haven’t had time to save money, put some aside. Their wiped out,” said Mazzarella.

Mayor Jasiel Correia II was also on hand, speaking with those displaced by the fire and the Red Cross volunteers.

"It really puts things in perspective," said Correia.

There will be a second resource fair on Tuesday from 1 to 7 p.m. in the atrium at Government Center.

Email Jo C. Goode at jgoode@heraldnews.com.