A convenience store is collecting donations for residents left homeless after their apartment building caught fire in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Manager Jim Courchain of Mike’s Corner Store at Rochester and Elm streets and one of his regular customers started the donations jar Wednesday. They have collected $200 so far and plan to divide the money among the residents in the most severely affected units, Courchain says.
“We’ll split the money evenly among the units regardless of how many people are in each unit. That makes it fair,” he says.
Units on the south side of the Booth Street apartment between Somerset and Albert streets were severely damaged in the fire. The incident left more than a dozen residents homeless.
“A little money will go a long way. We want to help out as much as possible,” Courchain says.
Fire crews were called in to extinguish the fire just after 6:30 a.m. after reports of heavy smoke coming from the roof.
The fire in the three-storey apartment building caused structural damages of $300,000 and damages of $100,000 for contents inside the units, according to media reports. No residents were injured but one firefighter was taken to hospital for stitches to his hand, according to media reports.