LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — After a fire burned their laundry room, damaging everything inside, the Salvation Army is asking for help at its Little Rock location.
"This has been a tough blow, especially at this time," Major Bill Mockabee said. "It seemed like we were getting momentum to move forward and continue to grow, then we had this fire happen."
When your goal is to help those in need, this slows you down.
"The one word that I would explain is dread," Mockabee said. "It was a dread of, 'What are we going to do? How are we going to continue to move our mission forward without our shelter?'"
The fire was contained to just the laundry room, sparing the rest of the building from flames. The smoke from the fire, however, quickly spread to all parts of the building.
"You can see the smoke line and how far down that smoke came as it was filling the hallways," Mockabee said.
That smoke was so dense that it reached the floors, damaging them, and even forcing some to be replaced.
"Just as the soot started to fall, and get on the floor," Mockabee said. "And as people were just coming in to grab their belongings and get those out, you can see that every room, there's not one room in this building that didn't sustain the smoke and soot damage."
No one was hurt in the fire, and all residents who were at the shelter at the time were relocated safely. Losing a shelter in Little Rock is a problem, though.
"So to take out beds out of the mix with that, it just compounds the problem," Mockabee said.
The Salvation Army is asking for help repairing the building. To donate, click here.
Items to replace what was burned, such as Twin XL linens, new towels, and pillows can also be donated to the shelter.