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The Georgetown Council has generously donated $1000 to the victims of the recent fire in Georgetown. This was in addition to the brother Knights who supported and assisted in the clothing and furniture drive.

----- Original Message -----

From: Robin O'Malley

To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;

Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 8:00 PM

Subject: Final Longview Update 2/8

This will be the final update concerning the Longview Relief.

Many families have moved into their new homes and are settling in. They are very appreciative of all the effort that the towns people have put in to helping them. Between clothes, food, household items, money and time that were donated, we are very thankful to you all.

Please note that if want to contact us regarding helping, you need to use the longview01833@yahoo.com email address. Our relief efforts are coming to an end and this is the only email address that you will receive an answer from.

We would like to thank everyone who has so generously donated in any way to this cause.

Sincerely

Sandy Gerraughty

Robin O'Malley

Matt Vincent

Note from Matt Vincent:
In case you missed it this morning, our own Robin O'Malley and Sandy Gerraughty were featured on WBZ 1030 as the latest "Hometown Heroes" for their role in managing the relief efforts for our neighbors at the Longview Apartments. Many people worked hard on this, but I think we would all agree that these two went far above and beyond in the time, effort and passion they put into this effort. Georgetown is proud of them. The piece will re-air this afternoon at 5:55pm. You can also listen online through a link from reporter Carl Steven's page at WBZ1030 (http://www.wbz.com/pages/9176.php then look for the segment under "recent episodes"). OR CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO IT

Longview Apartment Relief Fund

The Georgetown School System is working in conjunction with the Longview Apt Relief Fund to help replenish the pantries that the fire victims lost. We are looking for basic needs.

Each grade has been assigned specific items that are requested; please try to adhere to your child’s grade request so we can avoid major duplication. Please check expiration dates and please only unopened packages. Donations may be sent to school and put in the drop off containers. This pantry drive will last until Friday, January 26, 2007.

Kindergarten: foils, plastic wraps, storage containers, storage bags

1^st grade: first aid items: Band-Aids, antibacterial creams/ointments – NO over the counter medications

2^nd grade: spices, salt and pepper

3^rd grade: condiments: ketchup, mustard, relish, mayonnaise

4^th grade: dry goods: flour, sugars, baking soda, baking powder

5^th grade: oils, vinegars, salad dressings

6^th: baking needs: choc chips, nuts, coconut, vanilla, etc

7^th: coffee, tea, hot chocolate

8^th: sauces: salsa, bbq, hot sauce, marinades

9^th & 10^th: canned goods

11^th & 12^th: pasta and rices

Cathy Sullivan

---- Original Message -----

From: Robin O'Malley

To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;

Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 8:43 PM

Subject: Trucks needed for Friday, 1/12, for fire victims

Anyone available with a truck that can help residents of the right side of the building, 1st and 2nd floors, move their items, we would love to have your help. The first apartment appointment starts on Friday the 12th at 9:00 a.m. and continues all day. Anyone at any time that can provide some transportation any time during the day - probably within the Longview Complex - can show up and check into the office at the Clubhouse building. Margie and/or Marie can direct where you to go.

Also, I am looking for someone after 1:00 Friday, January 12th to drive to Danvers to a "self-storage" to bring a chest of drawers, bureau and rocking swivel chair to storage in Georgetown is needed. If you can help with this, please contact Robin O'Malley at this email address.

Thank you so much for your generosity!!

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Hi,

Today, we started delivering beds to people who are in their new apartments. There is not much more we can do at this point until more people move into new homes.

If you have furniture of any kind to donate, please follow the directions below.

We want to thank everyone who has so generously donated items over the last week, but at this point, please, we can not accept anything else. We have no storage facilities, but we are looking for some.

We are working this week to clear out the Knights of Columbus hall and yard.

The one thing that we do need is people to volunteer their time. Tonight we had a group of college kids help load, unload and set up the beds in the new apartments. Also today, we had people loading trucks of clothes and delivering them to other organizations.

In the next week, we should have a better idea of how you can donate your time.

This is the information on furniture donations:

Furniture: We have had offers of more furniture than you can imagine. Our plan is to have people do the following:

1. a picture of the furniture you have, this can be either digital or an actual photo.

2. a description of the furniture, size, type of wood, etc; the more the better

3. your contact info: name, phone, email address

After you have all this information we are asking you do one of two things:

1. email all info in one email to mvincent@ropesgray.com or

2. drop it off in an envelope to the Selectmen's office, 2nd floor town hall.

Our plan on furniture is to help each family individually by meeting their needs with what is being donated. Please remember that the fire victims are going through a major life alteration and we are trying to help them through this. We want them to have a feeling of "being home" when they start in their new living space and by having furniture that suits them is a great beginning.

Relief work to help the 24 homeless families had been coordinated by many, many folks, including Sandy Gerraughty, Matt Vincent, Robin O'Malley, Kathy Sachs, Janet Pantano, the Georgetown Republican Town Committee, the Georgetown Knights of Columbus, and many, many others......

"We have set up a non profit account at Georgetown Savings to accept donations. Checks can be made out to: Longview Apartments Relief Fund"
If you want to help, send e-mail to Selectman Matt Vincent at 01833@comcast.net to get involved and volunteer.

"Water Pressure"
You might have heard a lot about water pressure and sprinklers. Well, here are the facts so far:
1. It was an outside fire, or the fire was brought to the outside by a resident, onto a balcony. The fire went up the balcony, and into the attic. There were no sprinklers in the attic, hence the ravinging nature of the fire there.

2. Water pressure in the complex hydrants was bad at first, then someone started some fire pump thing that jumped the pressure up to where it was supposed to be. So, the question remains: is there an infrustructure error (wrong equipment/setup....need for a water tower?), or was human error to blame (local firefighters had no knowledge or delayed knowledge to manually start the pressure pump). Details to follow. But, after a 20 minute or so delay, the water was flowing and I witnessed more than 8 lines going at full force, for almost two hours non-stop, onto the building. So, there was a problem with pressure, someone did something, and then there was no problem with pressure. The fact that someone had to do something remains a question of extreme concern, and will be answered in the coming days.

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As any clothing is retrieved in the water-soaked building, I would like to suggest two companies locally to contact for
CLOTHING RESTORATION SERVICES

Sal's Clothing Restoration, Everet Massachusetts 877-SAL-SOOT
Peter's Laundry, Salem, Massachusetts, Peter Copelas is the contact at 978-744-5074

I know bother Peter and Sal. Call them and ask if they can help. If anyone would like to post someone else who does clothing restoration services, please let me know and I'll post them too.

The Red Cross Responded with emergency services to the victims of the Longview Apartment Fire.
While their activites are mostly limited to DISASTER SERVICES (food, shelter, basic needs fulfillments), these saints, and I do mean saints, provided comfort, caring, encouragement, and just plain downright friendliness and neighboring support. These folks were great. A chaplain. was present. Really incredible.
While I encourage you to support and send what you can to the Longview Apartment Relief Fun, c/o/ Georgetown Savings Bank, if you are capable, and willing, please consider donating to the Red Cross by calling 978-372-6871 (Haverhill office) and telling them that you want to donate. (I was told that 96% of the people at the High School were volunteers. One lady was headed to the gym when she got the alert call. Ten hours later, she was headed home, after helping do what she could to help familes.)

Relief work to help the 24 homeless families had been coordinated by many, many folks, including Sandy Gerraughty, Matt Vincent, Robin O'Malley, Kathy Sachs, the Georgetown Republican Town Committee, the Georgetown Knights of Columbus, and many, many others......

"We have set up a non profit account at Georgetown Savings to accept donations. Checks can be made out to: Longview Apartments Relief Fund"
If you want to help, send e-mail to Selectman Matt Vincent at 01833@comcast.net to get involved and volunteer.

From Robin O'Malley Robin O'Malley <romalley13@comcast.net>

Hi to all

First, let me extend my deepest thanks to everyone who donated or sorted clothes today. The response was overwhelming. Unfortunately, we have no storage space and are very limited on how many and what donations we can accept. That being said, we are no longer accepting clothing. We are moving on to Phase 3 of donations. Phase 1 was food, Phase 2 was clothing, Phase 3 is linens, blankets, towels, shower curtains.

We will be collecting linens, blankets, towels, shower curtains ONLY on Saturday, January 6th starting at 11:00 a.m at the Knights of Columbus. Please remember, we need donations that are in "like new" or new condition. We also need volunteers to help out at the Knights of Columbus on Saturday. If you are able to help, please email gtown01833@yahoo.com

Saturday, Jan 6th at 9:00 a.m. at the Penn Brook cafeteria there will be a meeting for any and all people who want to volunteer for any aspect of the relief effort. Please attend this meeting to find out how you may help.

We have set up a relief fund. If you would like to contribute, please send checks made out to "Longview Apartments Relief Fund" to Georgetown Savings Bank, 2 East Main Street, Georgetown, MA 01833

Quite a few people have asked about furniture, kitchen appliances, toys, etc. At this point in time, we are compiling a list of donations and will be in touch with you at a later date. Please be patient with us we are trying to figure out the logistics of collection and delivery.

Again, ONLY linens, blankets, towels and shower curtains are to be dropped off on Saturday.

Thank you for your continued support. Georgetown is truly a very special place to live.

Due to the large quantity of donations received for the clothing donation we are anticipating having a

Yard Sale at

The Knights of Columbus, Route 133, Georgetown

9:00 am to 2:00 pm

Sunday, January 7th.

All clothes are in wonderful condition

$5 per white kitchen bag - 13 gallon size

$10 per large black trash bag - 30 gallon size

All proceeds to benefit Longview Apartment Relief Fund

Hi to all

We have composed, to the best of our ability, the sizes of clothes needed and the ages of people.
Also we are looking for donations of trash bags or kitchen bags so people can fill bags
with clothes that they want to take.

Men's clothes:

tops: Large, XL, XXL, XXXL

pant sizes: 28, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 46

shoe sizes: 9.5, 10, 10.5 11, 13, 13.5

Women's clothes:

tops: petite, small, med, large, XL, XXL

pants: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 20

shoes: 5.5, 6.5, 7, 7.5, 8, 9.5 (special shoes)

Juniors: Ages of kids involved: 21 months, 2 years, 3 years

sizes: 7, 9, 15, 17 6 years, 7 years, 13, years and 14 years

There are 5 teen boys and 3 teen girls

Boys:

sizes: 6-7, 8, 10

shoes: 12, 13

Girls:

sizes: 13

shoes: 7, 8

Toddlers:

Please drop off donations between the hours of
8 and 12 on Friday, Jan 5th at the Knights of Columbus
on Route 133 next to the Getty Station. If you can stay and help, we would appreciate it. We need help sorting all the donations.

Also, we might be in need of trucks and drivers to move furniture and other belongings over the next few weeks. If you have a truck and are willing to take on this job, can you please let us know and we will get in touch with you at a later date when needed.

I am sending you this email because you had contacted us either through phone or through the 01833@comcast.net email. At this point, we are overwhelmed with people offering help and it is easiest to send out mass emails instead of individual ones. Over the next few days we will be reviewing your specific donations and trying to arrange to get those delivered to the fire victims.

Again, thank you for your assistance.

UPDATE:
First, the Georgetown Fire Department (Central and Erie Companies) responded in tremendous numbers to the fire today, and were supported by mutual aid from many cities and towns. Our firefighters have worked hard and long, all day, and many will work all night. Their families have worked, and cooked, and supported, and helped them to help our neighbors. Many businesses also donated food.

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The "Building 7 Fund" is now active.
The goal is to "make whole" every resident who has lost a bed, a table, a chair, a photo, a quilt, a cabinet of food, a drawer of clothes, etc. We need your help.
Anyone wishing to make donations to their now homeless neighbors who lived in Building 7 are asked to contact the selectman's office at 978-352-5755 tomorrow or send e-mail to 01833@comcast.net where Selectman Matt Vincent will help to coordinate with all other groups.

The Georgetown PTA and Georgetown Women of Today and others spent the day shuttling donations of food and clothes to the displaced residents and to neighbors who were shut out of their homes for the day due to the tremendous smoke damage. The outpouring of support was incredible.

Georgetown Firefighters are joined by forces from Rowley, Boxford, North Andover, Haverhill, Groveland, Danvers, and several others it appears as they battle the blaze at the Longview Apartments.

BUILDING # 7 has the third floor DESTROYED.
The building may not be saved, and most likely will be condemned and destroyed due to extensive water damage throughout the structure as firefighters had 5 or more hoses pouring water into the roof and third floor for hours today.

UPDATE: BUILDING 7 is heavily damaged by fire and water. The building cannot be occupied, and most like will be torn down. 24 familes are temporarily homeless. Most (19 it appears) held no insurance on their belongings.

Two cats and one dog had been rescued from the builiding by 12:30 today. Others are expected to be there. Red Cross has set up a temporary housing at the high school. ALL RESIDENTS are expected to be housed in the empty apartment buildings in the complex.

UPDATE: No one was injured, at least 3 cats and two dogs were rescued by firefighters. No pets were reported lost as of 7:00 p.m.

Damage is confined ot BUILDING # 7, but extensive fumes and smoke cause the evacuation of the entire apartment project this morning.

Georgetown Police, Fire, Water, Electric, Highway, Animal Control, and Selectmen were on-scene ot lend support. The Firefighters are working hard and it will be a long day for them.

There is a major fire going on at Longview apartment building 7, Georgetown. Please see the email sent by Matt Vincent. Volunteers, food, clothing and etc are immediately needed. Please coordinate with Robin O’Mally on what kind of help you can provide. Robin’s email is romalley13@comcast.net and her phone number is 978-352-7614