Postville comes together to help people displaced by downtown fire

Postville, a town accustomed to aiding troubled residents, is again mobilizing to help the 19 people displaced by Saturday morning's fire in the downtown business district.

“They lost everything. They need everything,” said Maryn Olson, a coordinator with the Postville Response Coalition, a group established to help the victims of the May 12, 2008, immigration raid at kosher meatpacker Agriprocessors Inc., the town's leading employer.

The displaced people resided in apartments that were either destroyed or damaged by Saturday's fire, according to Postville Fire Chief Jeff Bohr.

Five of the displaced residents spent two nights at St. Paul Lutheran Church, while others were accommodated by friends and relatives and in local motels, according to the Rev. Steve Brackett, pastor at the church.

In his sermon Sunday, Brackett said he discussed the town's adversity and put it in the context of opportunities for a community to show how its members care for each other.

“This community just keeps coming together to support and comfort each other,” he said.

Four apartments above a commercial space that once housed the Postville Bakery and Restaurant were destroyed, and a fifth apartment, above the Wishing Well flower and gift shop in an adjacent building, was damaged by smoke and water, Bohr said.

John's Appliance, on the other side of the destroyed building, also sustained extensive smoke and water damage, he said.

Firefighters believe the blaze originated in one of the apartments with a stove fire that got out of control, Bohr said.

One of the residents suffered a burn on his hand while escaping the fire, the chief said.

Bohr said the efforts of his firefighters and those of a dozen other departments - including three with aerial trucks, Decorah, Oelwein and Prairie du Chien, Wis. - saved the two adjacent buildings and perhaps the entire block.

People who want to help the victims can send donations to St. Paul Lutheran Church, 116 E. Military Rd., Postville 52162.