An apartment fire this week caused by an out of control grease fire displaced three families — 17 people — from the Cloverdale Family Apartments on Healdsburg Avenue. Now, local nonprofit La Familia Sana is putting out a call to the community to help each of those families get the resources needed to help repurchase some of the items they lost, as well as gather additional support for the impacted families.
On April 14, a grease fire ignited in one of the third-floor apartment units, causing the unit’s overhead sprinklers to go off. As a result, the apartment sustained both burn and flood damage, while the water from the sprinklers flooded the two floors beneath it.
All of the people impacted by the fire are safe and were placed in temporary housing with the help of Cloverdale Police Chief Jason Ferguson and the American Red Cross. On Thursday, April 15, La Familia Sana President Ezequiel Guzman worked to secure more permanent housing for the families while their apartments are repaired. One family has been placed in a different unit at Cloverdale Family Apartments and the other two were offered apartments in Calistoga.
“I’m so happy that we were able to get them some alternative permanent housing right away, temporarily while their apartment units get fixed,” Guzman said.
“There was damage all the way down — it just trickled down,” he said, referring specifically to the water damage.
La Familia Sana was described to the Reveille as “a nimble bottom-up grassroots organization that assists underserved people.”
The new nonprofit partners to co-create equitable and culturally cognizant solutions with community members to address long-term needs for health care, jobs, food and education in the Cloverdale and Geyserville communities.
The three impacted families — a family of eight, a family of five and a family of four — are part of La Familia Sana’s family resiliency program. Guzman said that while work has been done since the fire to help the families who were displaced, they’re in need of additional support.
“The people did lose a lot of their belongings. We’re taking it in phases to help them out,” Guzman said, noting that first they’re going to try and local large furniture like beds and couches that the families may need, and then the they’ll work to determine other items that the families still need.
“Cloverdale steps up, I have to say that … it cares about its people. That’s the way it is,” Guzman said.
People who are interested in helping the families can do so by contacting Ezequiel Guzman via email at ev*******@gm***.com. He said that the best things for people to donate would be either gift cards or money, which will allow the families to purchase the items they need the most.
