Millcreek allocates emergency funds to help fire victims after devastating apartment blaze

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Millcreek allocated $11,000 to aid victims of a fire that destroyed 24 apartments.
The fire was caused by a lawnmower spark, destroying two Willow Glen buildings.
Over $41,000 in donations received; each affected household to get approximately $2,300.

MILLCREEK — In a show of community support, Millcreek city leaders voted Monday night to allocate $11,000 in emergency funds to help residents who lost everything in a fast-moving fire that destroyed 24 apartment units last Friday.

The fire broke out just before 2 p.m. near 1300 East and 4800 South, sparked by what investigators believe was a lawnmower striking a rock. The resulting spark ignited dry brush and vegetation, quickly spreading to the Willow Glen Apartments. Two of the four buildings in the complex were destroyed.

A room full of hope

Inside Millcreek City Hall, on the sixth floor, a heartwarming scene has unfolded: an entire room filled with donated clothing, hygiene products and household supplies.

Volunteers like Tom Pridham and Jacky Heredia have been working tirelessly to sort through the donations.

"It's awful," said Pridham about the fire. "But just the amount of stuff that they were able to gather so quickly was really, really cool."

"Personally, a fire at my home is probably my worst nightmare," Heredia added. "I can't imagine what the people are going through right now."

City steps up financial support

At Monday night's City Council meeting, leaders unanimously agreed to provide $500 to each of the 22 occupied units affected. One unit was vacant, and another resident chose to donate their share to others in need.

In addition to city funds, $41,000 in public donations have poured in since the fire. The city plans to distribute checks of approximately $2,300 to each impacted household starting Tuesday.

"It's not something cities customarily do," said Mayor Jeff Silvestrini. "But this is a tragedy. These folks were just yanked out of their housing. It's a horrifying thing to contemplate — losing everything and having to run out of your house on a moment's notice."

How to help

City officials say no more physical donations are needed, but cash donations are still welcome. Contributions* can be made at millcreekut.gov.

*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.