(2019) One of our local refugee families were the unfortunate victim of an early morning fire that quickly engulfed a 2 1/2-story house and spread to two adjacent houses, 110 and 114 Massachusetts, leaving at least five families without a place to live. Ten children and one adult were taken to hospitals, mostly to be treated for smoke inhalation.
Waler Douth's extended family of nine, new here in Buffalo from South Sudan, fled from their apartment. His daughter, Nyakouth, 15, a sophomore at Hutchinson Central Technical High School, didn't even have time to put on her shoes. ROTA was able to assist the African family who wished to relocate to Nebraska after the tragic experience of the fire.
Another former refugee family’s apartment was also demolished by fire. They lost all their belongings and were displaced. The mom showed her true strength as she single handedly worked to move her family out of the Red Cross shelter into another apartment that was unoccupied. However the apartment proved to be a disaster for them and so she again sprung into action and located another more reasonable setting at least for now. ROTA was able to assist her with a new refrigerator and gas stove along with plastic weather sealing of their apartment windows and some donated furniture items.