Rotary to the Rescue
O I
n 14th December I received an e mail from RIBI Operations advising me of a
couple, Kirsty and Kieron Tierney- Jones living in Hornchurch, who had been the victims of an arson suspected fire and were in urgent need of help. Immediately I rang the number I had been given to find out what had happened and to ask what help was needed.
spoke to Kirsty who was obviously totally distraught because their kitchen had been
completely destroyed and no part of the home had remained untouched by fire or smoke. Adding to their misfortune was the fact that earlier in the year her husband had been made redundant and due to the lack of income they cut back on outgoings and foolishly did not renew their house insurance policy.
T
he next day Gerrie, my wife and I took about 30 litres of emulsion paint that had
been donated by Crown Paints to their house and saw the results of the fire. It actually looked far worse than she had described it the previous day. They explained the circum- stances of the fire which occurred while they were out shopping during the day. The house had been broken into at the rear of the prop- erty and when they arrived home black smoke was billowing from the kitchen windows at the front of the house. These had been forced from the inside which led them to believe that whoever had set the fire may have been sur- prised at its ferocity and escaped in panic, not from the rear but through the kitchen windows.
I
t was fortunate that although everything in the kitchen was destroyed including
equipment, saucepans and glass which had melted, the gas pipes re- mained intact otherwise the situation would have been even more
catastrophic. We asked Kirsty to gather up clothes and bedding and we stuffed it all into as many black bags as we could find and Gerrie took them home to start a programme of washing and ironing. I didn‘t count the number of washes but I did see the piles of ironing that she had done, not only that day but the next few as well.
I
sent e mails to all members of our Club as well as to the Secretaries of the RCs of Havering East and Romford. By Thursday 17th £500 had been pledged by individual Rotarians and despite having strict rules regarding financial support to individuals, on compassionate grounds, the three local Clubs of Hornchurch and Upminster, Havering East and Romford agreed to help and their dona- tions brought the total to almost £1500.
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