Red Cross Finds Emergency Housing for Victims of Pre-Dawn Mount Kisco Fire

A fire that broke out before dawn at 125 Spring Street in Mount Kisco left two cousins and their four children, who range in age from 1 to 8 years old, homeless.

The Red Cross provided them with emergency housing, financial assistance for infant food and diapers, and transportation, for when they could get back in to pick up some belongings, volunteer Caroline Sherwin said.

The Red Cross was called in at 5 a.m.

Sherwin praised the members of Independence Fire Co., who had pulled out blankets from the emergency supplies the Red Cross keeps stashed there; and the Mount Kisco Ambulance Corps, who opened up the doors of their headquarters on Lexington Avenue.

“The wind chill was minus 5 degrees when we got there,” she said. “Little kids in their pajamas...we got everybody nice and warm.”

Sherwin called the Red Cross partnership with emergency services in Mount Kisco “just phenomenal. It shows how we work together to take care of our neighbors.”

The other thing the volunteers provided were handmade stuffed bears, part of the Red Cross’s Crispinelli kits..

The kits are named after Stephanie Crispinelli, the Katonah 19-year-old who died in the Haiti earthquake while on a humanitarian mission, are lovingly handmade by Red Cross Volunteers and the students of Primrose Elementary School.

PHOTO/Eric Hartmann