A Port Hope woman is being praised for her quick thinking to help residents get out of a burning apartment building last week.
Marilyn Lupiccini says on Thursday around noon, she was going for her regular walk when she walked past the apartment on 48 Wellington St. and heard a woman yell, “Fire!”
“I’m standing there and no one was coming out. Initially, my first reaction was to run in to bang on doors, but it’s a locked building,” Lupiccini said. “So I started pressing all the buzzers — three times — and people were answering and I’m yelling for people to get out.”
Among the residents who heard the buzzer was Dawn Dowle, who lives in a ground floor apartment. She was sleeping at the time after finishing a midnight shift at work.
“The alarms were going off but I was sleeping,” Dowle said. “The only reason I knew about the fire was from another woman who set off the front door buzzers. They alerted my dog which woke me up and I ran to the front door. I could hear the woman yelling ‘fire.'”
“She’s a hero. I probably would have been in there longer had she not rung the buzzers.”
The fire spread throughout the upper part of the 24-unit complex. The Ontario’s Office of the Fire Marshal said the blaze was “accidental due to electrical failure” in a third-floor unit. Tenants are still not permitted to return.
Up to 50 people (23 families) have been displaced and several pets also died in the fire.
Donations continue to pour in, including up to $20,000 raised from a benefit concert on Sunday and auctions.
Longtime resident John Han donated $100 to the cause.
“I grew up on Wellington Street. It hit home pretty hard,” he said. “Everybody lost everything. Most people who rent don’t realize they need renters’ insurance. It’s too bad.”
Event organizer Bill Fulton, who lives next door to the apartment complex, said he felt compelled to help the displaced residents and launched “Party in Memorial Park.”
“By the next morning, I wanted to do something,” he said. “Something happens in this community, people step up. The community has come out of the woodwork. I had more people call me Saturday (for the concert) than I have the last six months.”
Donations are still be accepting at the Port Hope Police station on Fox Road.
“Anything people can give. I’ve even had people offering to donate a bed as they’re renovating their own place,” Fulton said. “It’s just amazing what people are giving.”
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