Richmond Hill fire victims seek supplies and support from neighbors

The owners of Lemuria Emporium on Jamaica Avenue have started an online fundraiser after their business was destroyed in a Thursday morning fire. Photo via GoFundMe

By Rachel Vick

Queens residents are stepping up to support more than three dozen Richmond Hill families displaced by a six-alarm fire that tore through their apartments early Thursday morning.

The blaze burned through six buildings along Jamaica Avenue and left at least 40 tenants homeless, the FDNY said.

Several fundraisers have begun to raise money and collect supplies for the displaced families, 

City Council candidate Shaeleigh Severino, who went to high school in Richmond Hill, said Friday that she had collected over 40 boxes of food and 200 packs of personal protective equipment for the tenants.

“I’m heartbroken for all the people affected by this fire,” Severino said. “As if the pandemic wasn’t enough for folks to deal with, now they find themselves homeless. Our community has to step up and help.”

She said volunteers or interested donors can email her office for more information.

Though none of the residents were injured, some families lost almost everything they own, NY1 reported.

One fire victim started an online fundraiser

“If anyone can please help me there was a fire started next door to my apartment and [spread] to mine I lost clothes furniture and now me and my wife and son have no where to go we're homeless now if you can find it in your heart to support and help us,” wrote Michael Walker.

The owner of a first-floor tarot reading and spiritual shop also launched an online fund drive to raise money to restore her destroyed business. 

“What was once a shop filled with love and positive energy as now been reduced down to ash and rubble,” wrote Karyna Alexander Tijero Celiz, owner of Lemuria Emporium.

The shop “is not in the place to rebuild financially on its own and I am asking the community to lend a helping hand,” they said.