{"id":74366,"date":"2025-12-18T13:33:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/74366\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T13:33:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:33:26","slug":"upper-west-side-residents-displaced-by-apartment-building-fire-are-holding-on-to-hope-through-their-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/74366\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper West Side residents displaced by apartment building fire are holding on to hope through their faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of families are coping with losing everything after last week’s fire that tore through a six-story apartment building on the Upper West Side<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now in the midst of holiday season, displaced residents are in search of other places to live, all while holding on to their faith.<\/p>\n

“I have nothing”<\/p>\n

As crews boarded up the building on 107th Street, the memories of a lifetime lingered for many.<\/p>\n

“It’s hard to me because what do I have right now? I have no house, no clothes, no apartment. I have nothing,” said victim Milly Martin, who had called the building home for 50 years. “Yes, all my life. My kids were born there.”<\/p>\n

The 75-year-old is now staying a few doors down at the Church of the Ascension.<\/p>\n

“This is my first house … the church. The other one I take it for sleep,” Martin said.<\/p>\n

\"uws-fire-credit-fdny.png<\/p>\n

Firefighters were on the scene of a large fire on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on Dec. 9, 2025.<\/p>\n

FDNY\/X<\/p>\n

Last Tuesday, flames ripped through the building, forcing residents to flee with little more than the clothes they were wearing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It has been a scramble for sure. The priority has been to stabilize life for my daughter,” Louis Venosta said.<\/p>\n

Venosta said he’s looking for a sublet to keep his 16-year-old at LaGuardia High School.<\/p>\n

“We are trying to make sure she doesn’t lose her opportunity for university,” Venosta said.<\/p>\n

Church of the Ascension holds massive fundraising drive<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the Church of Ascension held a benefit concert, and over the last week has raised $250,000, about 10 times its initial goal. Nearly two dozen families will each receive a $10,000 check, and the church will continue collecting donations until Christmas.<\/p>\n

“People have been very generous. I mean, the people in the neighborhood, I’m really moved by their support,” Venosta said.<\/p>\n

As for Martin, she said her faith is helping her hold on to the bright side — that all of her neighbors are OK.<\/p>\n

“Nobody passed away. Everybody in the building is safe,” she said.<\/p>\n

For displaced residents, the road ahead may be unclear, but they know they are surrounded by hope — the one thing the fire couldn’t take away.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of families are coping with losing everything after last week’s fire that tore through a six-story apartment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[9377,194,75,84,83,9,24,63,62],"class_list":["post-74366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-apartment-fire","tag-fdny","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-upper-west-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}