Zach Crockett who has raised nearly $200,000 for the fire victims offers us this profile today of another fire victim.
On January 28th, 2015, at approximately 6:45pm, a fire broke out in a residential-commercial building at Mission and 22nd Streets in San Francisco. In the aftermath, one man is dead, three are injured, and some 64 individuals (including 16 children), are left without a home. They lost everything — valuables, documents, cash savings, quinciñera dresses, family heirlooms.
This feature is the second of a series of these residents’ stories we’ve told. You can find part one HERE. Our hope is to put faces behind this tragedy, and to raise money for a fire relief fund started by the author, who is a writer for this blog.
San Francisco’s skyline came into Lauren Silverman’s view just after 7PM on January 28th. The 32-year-old former dancer had been driving for two days — more than 18 hours on the road — from Boulder, Colorado. After months of discussions, tonight was the night she’d move in with her boyfriend, Christopher “Topher” LaFata.
And then, Lauren received a phone call. It was Topher: his apartment was on fire.
As she drove across the bridge and navigated through the busy streets of the city, Lauren’s excitement segued to dread; by the time she arrived at Topher’s Mission and 22nd Street residence, the neighborhood was a grid of flashing red lights, smoke, and broken windows. In a car packed with her belongings — the promise of a new life in the city — Lauren watched the building burn. READ MORE
