More than $35,000 has been raised so far to help tenants displaced by Friday night’s fire on Elm Street, Mayor Tim Dougherty said on Tuesday.
Calling the public response “overwhelming,” the Mayor expressed pride in citizens while asking them to halt donations of material items, which are overloading the Morristown Fire House.
Monetary contributions for the victims still are being accepted by the Mayor’s office, and fundraisers are planned on Wednesday evening, Feb. 4, 2015, at Grasshopper Off the Green and the Iron Bar.
Victims of the fire expressed gratitude.
“People have a good heart. That’s nice,” said Sergio Barnal, an Ecuadorian immigrant whose apartment, which he shared with cousin Rolando Perez and his family, was destroyed in the blaze.
Barnal and the Perez family got some clothes and toiletries at the fire station, Barnal said.
“I’m still in shock. I lost everything,” said Barnal, who returned to work on Tuesday.
He has found a small room near Morristown Medical Center, a long walk to his restaurant job downtown. His cousin’s family is staying with friends until they find an apartment, he said.
The fire consumed cash from Barnal’s paycheck, an Apple computer, a PlayStation console and, worst of all, irreplaceable memories from thousands of photos stored on a pair of iPads, he said. Lost were many pictures of his parents, who he works to support back in Ecuador.
Tom O’Donnell, a programmer who lived above Del’s Novelty, is staying with family for now. The public response has made an impression on the 23-year-old.
“It makes me want to contribute back,” O’Donnell said.
The Red Cross, working with Morristown’s Centro Biblico church, said that it assisted 23 people displaced by the fire, which raged into the bitterly cold early morning hours on Saturday, seriously damaging Del’s Novelty, Clifford’s and La Estacion restaurant, among other businesses. Nobody was injured. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.
‘WE’RE 100 PERCENT MOVING FORWARD’
At least one of the business owners intends to pick up the pieces.
“We’re 100 percent moving forward,” said David Bernat, a partner in a consortium that has spent months planning to open a restaurant, Town Bar & Kitchen, in the former Sebastian’s steakhouse.
The building sustained significant water and smoke damage, but still appears structurally sound, said Bernat, a partner in Cambridge Wines.
“Nobody was hurt. No lives were lost. That’s really all that matters. Buildings can be rebuilt. Memories, unfortunately, were lost. But this is the strongest community anybody can ask for,” said Bernat, noting that he has donated clothes and money to help his less fortunate neighbors on Elm Street.
He said it’s too soon to say when the restaurant will open. His group, led by Robert Previdi of Mendham, bought the former Sebastian’s last May. The liquor license was purchased as well.
Cuisine will be “New Age American,” said Bernat, whose father, Brian Bernat, and his Cambridge Wines partner, Anthony Dinelli round out the team.
David Bernat said he is grateful to all the fire departments that kept the fire from spreading. His initial shock from Friday night has given way to astonishment at the town’s response, he added.
“Everybody in the community has been so helpful, and continues to be,” Bernat said. “Customers, town people, they’ve reached out to us. It blew my mind, all the support we’ve seen.”
‘CHRISTMAS IN FEBRUARY’
Morristown’s fire house on Speedwell Avenue often doubles as a warming station and shelter during bad weather. But this was the first time in his 22 years there that Fire Chief Robert Flanagan has seen the place used as a staging area to assist fire victims.
“It was great when it was all coming in,” Flanagan said of the clothing donations. “I was extremely happy to see the community stepping up to the plate.”
“I turned away a truckload of items from Short Hills because we have physically run out of room. I’m stuffing boxes of donations wherever I can find space” said Morristown Fire Department Volunteer Norm Nutt Jr.
Nutt and his dad, Norm Nutt Sr., are like Morristown’s disaster dream team, fighting fires, manning the warming center, and organizing relief drives for Hurricane Sandy victims.
“When the Chief called and said he didn’t care how we did it, but we need to transform the third floor into a collection site for the victims of the Elm Street fire, we just do it. We’re a team,” said the junior Nutt.
On Tuesday he looked over the bounty of items in disbelief.
“It’s kind of like Christmas in February ” he said.
MG correspondent Berit Ollestad contributed to this report.
MORE ABOUT THE ELM STREET FIRE
Wow! What a generous and loving amount of help! I know the Community Soup Kitchen (on South Street) also helps a lot of people in town as well l maybe that would be another place that could accept some of the generous donations…:)