Mission community quick to help victims of fire
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Neighborhoods often pull together after a disaster, and the fire in the Mission District is no exception and the moments of giving are being seen even more quickly with the help of technology.
Thirteen-year-old Alessandro Gonzales was at home when the fire erupted Wednesday. He had to flee through the fire escape because of heavy smoke.
"I grabbed the ladder and went to the second floor," he said. As that brave 13-year-old boy looked down ready to jump, he noticed other people looking up. "Everybody was crowded, some people were taking videos," he said.
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And someone else noticed them too.
Zachary Crockett was riding by on his bike.
"And all I could see were a sea of people filming it, just a sea of screens filming a disaster. No one was really offering to help," he said.
Crockett said he wanted to do more, so he went home and started an online fundraising campaign.
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"I figured I'd just help in some small way, and it's kind of just ballooned from there," he said.
In the first 24 hours, his site raised $26,000.
"And that number is going up like crazy still," he added. "I think a lot of people do want to help, they just don't know how."
One way people have been finding out about that fundraiser is through a neighborhood news website Mission Local. The online website was headquartered in the building that burned. Now they're trying to help others as they piece their own operation back together.
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"We got an email and a tweet from a reader that there was a massive fire on 22nd and Mission. I think at that point we didn't know that it was our office," Daniel Hirsh, assistant editor of Mission Local said.
They set up a new office in the editor's dining room.
"I mean really, our loss is huge, but you think of people who didn't even have a home to go home to, it's just devastating," Mission Local founder Lydia Chavez said.
RAW VIDEO: Mission fire from ground level
And that's who they're trying to help. Their website and Twitter feed have become a town square of sorts, where neighbors reach out to other neighbors.
"This woman tweeted at us saying, I have a shower. I have a bathroom, anyone who needs it can have it," Hirsh said.
A local bar offered to become a donation center and one woman who lost her office in the fire was still thinking of others.
"These people, they saved themselves but they lost everything," Claudia Zapata said. "I guess I can help."
She's offered to open her home to a displaced family. Her first invitation went to the family of that 13-year-old boy, Alessandro Gonzales.
"Yeah I feel blessed. I got out thank god and I'm here," Gonzales said.
Click here to make a donation on the GoFundMe.com page. So far, more than $30,000 has been raised. Also, local business Doc's Clock will hold a fundraising event on Saturday to help the families. That event starts at 4 p.m.
Donations can also be sent to the San Francisco chapter of the Red Cross.
