Estimates of the damage from a massive fire in Cambridge last weekend are still coming in, but is believed will exceed $15 million. The City of Cambridge says that more than 70 families and as many as 180 individuals were displaced, but government and local relief officials say they are making progress in getting people placed in homes.
Jim Voutiritsa stepped outside his house for a smoke and a whiff of fresh air. A soft wind sent white puffs from his cigarette in the direction of his newly renovated home and he was reminded of how close he came to personal disaster several days ago.
“I feel very lucky. Very lucky. Didn’t lose anything and got a little bit of smoke damage that’s it,” he said.
Voutiritsa lives a couple of hundred feet from where it is believed the fire started. Between puffs, he sampled the air and the smell of char and irony were everywhere. He attributed his good luck to the weather conditions that day.
"The way the wind was blowing. It was just happening to be blowing toward the north a little bit," he said.
The wind that day blew the fire in the direction of the home of an immigrant named Yvonne, who is a victim of domestic battery who city officials say is suffering from post-traumatic stress. The fire compounded her suffering. Earlier this week, she told WGBH News she received some help from the Red Cross.
"I stayed at the hotel and I don’t know where I’m going to go from there," she said.
WGBH News has since received word that Yvonne may be close to receiving permanent housing, and she’s not alone.
“We’re going to move, I think eleven families into permanent housing and we believe by next Friday we can have another thirteen moves," said Louis DePasquale, the Cambridge City Manager. He added tens of hundreds of people this week –locally and from all corners of the state — opened their wallets to those displaced by the mammoth blaze, raising more than $500,000 online and nearly $70,000 directly deposited at Cambridge City Hall.
“On Tuesday and Wednesday over the last two days we’ve cut about $75,000 worth of checks. It’s $600 an individual, up to $2,400 a family. People have been incredible in terms of their charity and wanting to give," DePasquale said.
DePasquale says he’s also aware that where there is giving, there is also those who want to get what they have not earned. As a result, Cambridge and the Red Cross have put strict conditions in place, including a five-phase distribution period.
“All this money is going to the people of this tragedy, but now it’s making sure that we come up with proper procedures, proper avenues," he said. "But all the money will be going to the people who are affected.”
A half-mile from City Hall at Cambridge Fire Headquarters, local residents have been giving in a whole different way. Many of the firefighters last weekend were on the job way into the night and the next morning. When they returned here and to other stations they were welcomed with an array of goodies.
“There was food. There was cake. There was all kinds of stuff the people had been bringing throughout the day, and we truly appreciate it,” said Cambridge Fire Department Assistant Chief Gerard Mahoney, who was among the more than 150 firefighters from 25 communities who responded to the blaze.
“Just for example, Boston, Brookline, Somerville, Watertown, Belmont, Waltham, Chelsea, Medford…” he added. As he was rushing to the fire in East Cambridge, news of the Oakland tragedy was coming in slowly.
“I had heard something about it in the afternoon and prior to this fire," Mahoney said. "Ironically, I have relatives in California and they sent me text messages to see if I was okay, because they were watching this live on TV in California and they mentioned also the fire in Oakland.”
Five Cambridge police officers were treated for smoke inhalation. A Newton police officer was rushed to the hospital and held overnight for observation. Mahoney says it is nothing short of a miracle that no lives were lost on Saturday.
As WGBH News has reported all week, how the fire began remains a mystery, but construction work on a house at 35 Berkshire St. is what the state fire marshal — with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms — is focused on. Mahoney says the company working on the house, which WGBH News identified as Daddy Construction of Boston, had all the proper authorization to gut the building.
“Everything was being done according to permit, but what happened there at the scene on Saturday is something we’re all looking for the answer to," Mahoney said.
So is Jim Voutiritsa, putting his cigarette out on the street now dotted with boarded up three-deckers and others slated to come down.
“These homes along this side of the street are still unoccupied. They can’t get in," he said, pointing to the nearby houses. "Smoke and water damage and all the homes on this side. It’s going to be rough for a lot of people. Displaced and living in hotels and not much to live on. It’s going to be real tough.”
But for many, it will be made a little less tough than it could be thanks to this thing we call community.
