Nuns praised for helping fire victims
Uniontown American Red Cross workers and the Sisters of St. Basil at Mount St. Macrina have been working day and night since early Sunday morning to take care of 14 elderly residents of Heritage Apartments. The residents were forced to evacuate the senior citizen, high-rise apartment building in Uniontown because of a fire.
John Lingo, Red Cross coordinator, and Peggy Ridmon, disaster action team acting supervisor, said without the nuns and their generosity they don’t know what the residents, who range in age from 60 to 96, would have done.
“These people have been on a mental roller coaster since Sunday,” Ridmond said. “Because of what they have been through, we have had to call in mental health workers to counsel them. Those who have families in the area were fortunate to go home with them, but we still have 14 people who need a place to live.”
Ridmond said the residents were transported to the Uniontown Fire Station after the fire for temporary shelter.
“We didn’t know what to do with them and then the sisters said that they could stay at Mount St. Macrina until other arrangements were made,” Ridmond said. “The sister have provided all of their meals, have given them clothes, picked up medications and have been just great with them.”
Ridmond said the the company that operates Heritage Apartments told the residents Wednesday that they will be moving to new apartments on Friday.
However, Lingo said he’s afraid that the move might be too much for some of the them to handle.
“They informed us today that movers will be here Friday to move the residents to apartments in California and/or Uniontown,” said Lingo. “The problem with that is they are going to move their smoke and soot-filled belongings to their new apartments.”
Lingo said he is afraid that the residents will not be able to unpack their belongings and clean their furniture.
“They are elderly and confused,” said Lingo. “I don’t know how they expect these people to do this cleaning by themselves.”
Lingo said the Red Cross is looking for volunteers who are willing to help the residents clean their possessions.
“If there are members of a church out there who might want to volunteer their services or a halfway house we need to hear from them,” said Lingo. “All they have to do is call 724-438-2567 and let us know that they are available to help.”
Lingo said he has had about 20 workers who have helped out around the clock since Sunday and they are simply exhausted.
“My workers need sleep, and they need to get back to their lives. Many of these people have taken vacation time from their jobs to help out,” said Lingo.
Lingo said the Red Cross has even had the volunteer services of a nurse who checks the resident’s blood pressure and monitors their medications. He also said that most of the residents lost their medications in the fire.
“Once medication has been in a fire you are not allowed to take it,” said Lingo.
Ridmond said many of the residents are still wearing the same clothes they came in with. She said they need women’s sizes 6-8 to 24, men’s sizes 40-42 and shoes in sizes 4 to 9 in women’s and 9-11 in men’s.
The residents also need shampoo and toiletries and coats.
Resident Julia Zoldak said she’s just thankful that the Red Cross volunteers, the sisters, firefighters, police and EMTs have taken very good care of them.
“They have taken precious care or everyone of us,” said Zoldak. “We are so grateful to them. Without them I don’t know where we would be.”
Sister Jean Marie said it’s been a pleasure to have the residents there.
“They are just the sweetest people,” she said. “I am so happy that we were able to help out during this difficult time.”