Millcreek inundated with physical donations, asks for money for fire victims

MILLCREEK — Millcreek officials said City Hall is packed full with physical donations for victims of Friday’s destructive fire at the Willow Glen Apartments.

Now, they’re asking people to send monetary donations for the individuals who lost many or all of their belongings.

Unified Fire Authority said the fire displaced 79 people. Four firefighters had minor injuries. Fortunately, no humans died in the fire, but some pets are unaccounted for.

Millcreek City Council member Cheri Jackson said they started receiving donations a few hours after the fire sparked.

Millcreek is overwhelmed with physical donations for the Willow Glen Apartment fire victims. (Shelby Lofton, KSL TV)

“This kind of tragedy is everyone’s worst nightmare,” Jackson said. “A knock on the door telling people to leave immediately, couldn’t even grab their pets, couldn’t grab any personal belongings.”

Two days later, two large rooms are filled with toys, cleaning supplies, and clothes. Jackson said The Home Depot donated two trailer loads of items.

“We’re trying to just get the word out that right now we’re really good on the physical donations,” Jackson said.

The city needs to organize all of the goods, then assess what else is needed.

“We anticipate needing some volunteers to help us sort through all these things, but we need to kind of organize and get that set up so that we don’t have people just standing around,” Jackson said.

For now, they highly encourage people to donate money.

“They’re going to have to get into new apartments and deposits,” Jackson said. “Many of them lost their cars … medications, specialized help for physical equipment, the cars, things like that, that just are going to cost them money, and even just the expense of setting up a new apartment with a deposit, anything for the utilities.”

So far, more than $16,000 has been donated through the city’s official online fundraiser.

“100% of the donation is going to the fire victims,” Jackson said. “We are not keeping any of it here in the city.”

Jackson said the city is interviewing every single person impacted.

“We’re just going to work through the process just to assess and evaluate and then distribute the money to them based on their need,” she said.

“Nobody wants to be in that situation, and I think that’s why the community has responded so compassionately, because it is such a horrific thing to just have only the shirt on your back,” Jackson said.