LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Days after a massive fire downtown left dozens without a place to live, several people are coming together to help those who need it most.
“It was absolutely crazy, to be honest,” Manuel Aguayo, who lives near where the fire started, told 8 News Now Sunday.
Soot-covered walls shattered windows, and piles of rubble are signs of the largest fire the City of Las Vegas has seen in 25 years.
“We got a knock on the door,” Aguayo recalled. “And we had to run out.”
Since so many are still without a home, many in the community are stepping up.
“Everybody was talking about how we needed to do something,” Ashantee McGee said of her decision to help.
McGee and Fawn Douglas, who organized a local donation drive for those affected by the fire, have been gathering necessities for those who have lost everything.
“We just immediately putting our resources together and trying to figure out who we knew,” McGee recalled. “And trying to reach out to other organizations to figure out what we can do.”
They wrapped up their week-long effort Thursday and are now sending the supplies they collected to ‘United Movement Organized Kindness’ for them to be distributed.
“We have to do something to step in,” Douglas said. “Because this is our neighborhood.”
Countless lives were changed in a matter of minutes when Sunday’s fire broke out, but with the help, people are providing, those impacted can begin to recover.
“It’s unimaginable what people are going through,” McGee said.
“We live here,” Douglas concluded. “These are our people.”
McGee and Douglas received monetary donations as well, which they sent to the Red Cross.
If you’d like to donate through the Red Cross, click HERE.
To donate through United Movement Organized Kindness, click HERE