Local News

More than $200,000 has already been crowdfunded for victims of massive Cambridge fire

At least 89 people have been displaced by the 10-alarm fire Saturday, officials say.

Firefighters battle a 10-alarm fire Saturday on Berkshire and York Streets in Cambridge. Brett Boston

By Nik DeCosta-Klipa

2 minutes to read

Before firefighters had even left the scene, support for the victims of a devastating Cambridge fire had already reached six figures Sunday morning.

By 6 p.m., more than $200,000 had been raised for those displaced by the massive 10-alarm fire—less than 24 hours after Mayor Denise Simmons first tweeted the link to a relief fund set up by the city.

The fund’s goal, originally set at $200,000, was raised Sunday afternoon to $500,000, as authorities work to grapple with the total cost of the fire.

City officials first estimated Saturday that the East Cambridge blaze destroyed or damaged at least 11 buildings and displaced at least 60 people in the midst of the holiday season.

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However, Jeff Hall, a local Red Cross spokesman, told The Boston Globe those figures had been revised Sunday to 15 buildings damaged and 89 people displaced, including 32 families.

Cambridge Fire Chief Gerald Reardon called it “miraculous” that no one was killed or seriously injured in the fire.

By Sunday evening, more than 3,100 people had contributed to the Mayor’s Fire Relief Fund, with individual donations ranging from $10 up to $500.

“To everyone who has donated, thank you very much, it is great to see the community come together in such a time of need,” Dana Fuller, a Berkshire Street resident, wrote in a post on the relief fund page. Fuller said his house would be torn down as a result of the fire.

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“God bless you all,” he added.

As Globe reported Saturday, those affected by the fire were taken to shelters at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and the War Memorial Recreation Center. Red Cross representatives were available at the shelters, the city of Cambridge said Saturday.

According to the Globe, the fire originated at a three-family home under renovations on Berkshire Street, located in a residential neighborhood between Kendall and Inman squares. The blaze, which began around 3 p.m., quickly spread to other buildings during the windy afternoon.

MIT sent an email offering temporary relief housing to students living in the area and affected by the fire, according to a graduate student at the nearby university.

Support was also extended on social media by local residents, who offered shelter ranging from spare space in their own homes to nearby rental rooms.

https://twitter.com/smaguerra/status/805263519562211328

Simmons thanked community members for the material offerings of support, but instead asked people donated to the aforementioned relief fund.

“We have to remember that it’s the holidays,” she told the Globe at the scene Saturday. “We have so many families that are going to be touched by the tragedy, so we want to be sure that we are being here to lift up, protect, and comfort those that have been touched by this devastation.”

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According to the GoFundMe page, donations to the Mayor’s Fire Relief Fund can be made in-person or by mail with a check addressed to:

Mayor’s Fire Relief Fund
795 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139

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