Neighbours of a Guelph apartment building are banding together to try and help those affected by a fire that left several people displaced last month.
On April 29 around 5:30 in the morning firefighters responded to a call to a low rise apartment building at 50 Mercer St. in central Guelph where a smoldering fire was found in the kitchen of one of the units.
The fire was quickly brought under control and put out, but an elderly female tenant of the apartment was taken to Guelph General Hospital and later transferred to hospital in Hamilton, where she remains.
In total three families were displaced by the fire due to smoke and water damage.
Fire officials placed initial damage estimates at $250,000.
The cause of the fire was believed to be a pot on a stove.
A few days later neighbour Holly Jones set up a gofundme page to raise money to help pay for incidentals for those displaced, as well as insurance deductibles and the cost of finding new lodgings.
Last weekend other neighbours held a street barbecue to help raise money.
A lemonade stand run by children saw a passerby pay $20 for a glass of lemonade when that person found out what the money was going to.
The amount of support that’s come forward is just mind boggling, just awesome,” said Jones, who lives across the street from the apartment building.
Jones’s gofundme account www.gofundme.com/help-the-fire-victims-at-50-mercer can be found here.
“Each day they wonder where they will be able to find an affordable new home, somewhere to stay in the in term, how they will be able to pay their $1,000 insurance deductible and how long it will be before their expenses go above their insurance,” Jones wrote on the gofundmepage.
She said there are others displaced who are newcomers to Canada with no insurance.
The goal of the gofundme page is $10,000 and Jones said she will be talking with Victim Services about how any funds received should be dispersed.
“It’s great to see the way the community is helping out,” Jones said.
