SUNDERLAND — Early Saturday morning, Sarah Roman left her Sugarloaf Estates apartment to take her dog outside.
When she spotted the flames and fire trucks at Building 4, she felt a flood of fear.
“It’s really scary when you see something like that and realize how quickly that could be you in that situation,” Roman said.
After the sun rose, she visited the site of the fire and saw the missing portion of roof that had been swallowed up by the flames.
“Being a resident of the community and being involved in Sunderland in general, I’ve come to really love the community,” Roman said. “To see such devastation hit right at home really made me feel for the families that had to be displaced and lost everything. My first thought was, ‘What can I do to help?'”
Later that day, Roman created a GoFundMe to raise money for the Sugarloaf Estates residents navigating the fallout of the fire. So far, the GoFundMe has raised $270. Although the goal on the website reads “$2K,” Roman said, “Let’s not stop at $2,000.”
“It’s not just about the money, though,” Roman said. “It’s also about the community support and really knowing that there’s someone standing there with you.”
Farther south at the Banchan Korean Deli in the Route 116 plaza, owner Hilda Bailey is collecting donations of “basic necessities” like baby clothes, toiletries, towels, clothing, kitchen supplies, bedding and pet supplies — “things you touch every day,” Bailey said. As of Tuesday, 10 people had stopped by with donations, but Bailey expects more to come.
“This is something I can do,” Bailey said. “I’m more of a community person than anything else, and having a store helps me help the community more.”
During its meeting on Monday night, the Selectboard thanked the 16 area departments that responded to the fire and highlighted Bailey’s efforts to help those affected.
Referring to the deli, Selectboard member Christyl Drake-Tremblay said, “They’ve been wonderful. Anytime there’s a need in town, they’ve stepped up.”
Bailey grew up on a military outpost in Devens surrounded by a close-knit Korean community that stepped up whenever neighbors struggled.
“Anytime something happened to one person, like somebody would lose a spouse, everybody would show up, clean their house, make them food, take care of them for a month,” Bailey remembered.
In Sunderland, she wants to lend a similar helping hand to residents who lost belongings in the fire.
“Sunderland’s a good community, but it is a transitional community with a lot of students involved. I’m a little bit more stable, so I can at least do something like this,” Bailey said next to the donation bin at the front of the store. “People want to help, they just don’t have a clear route.”
Visitors can drop off donations at the Banchan Korean Deli during its open hours, Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. Roman’s GoFundMe can be found at gofundme.com/f/support-sugarloaf-estates-fire-victims.
