MONROE APARTMENTS Red Cross to link victims of fire to donors with household items

The building owner is helping fire victims relocate.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
EAST LIVERPOOL -- The American Red Cross East Liverpool chapter is accepting phone calls from people who want to donate items for Monroe Apartments fire victims.
Fire destroyed the 10-apartment complex at Monroe Street and Fourth Avenue on the city's southwest side early Wednesday, sending seven families into the street around 1 a.m. with few belongings.
Donna Allison, Red Cross executive director, said 17 people in seven families were left homeless, including a 9-year-old girl, a 2-year-old boy, a 3-year-old boy and a 16-month-old boy.
The fire left the building unsafe, so tenants could not go back in to retrieve items.
Allison said Red Cross policy is to take calls at the chapter from people who want to donate items, then Red Cross volunteers give donors' phone numbers to the victims so they can make arrangements to receive the items.
What's needed
She said clothing needs have been taken care of but the families need everything else from furniture to cookware and table settings.
Allison said the building owner is helping tenants find housing among his other rental properties and will carry over their deposits to the new rentals. The new apartments are equipped with stoves and refrigerators, so those are not needed, she said.
The Red Cross is paying tenants' first month's rent, and Catholic Charities will pay the second month's rent.
Meanwhile, city firefighters continue to interview tenants and search for a cause of the fire. They believe it started in a bedroom of one of the apartments.
For more information or to donate items, call the East Liverpool chapter at (330) 386-4144. Chapter hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.