Firefighters Brighten Day for Displaced Family

MEDIA CONTACT: Mark E. Brady, Chief Spokesperson, 240-508-7930

mebrady@co.pg.md.us      @PGFDPIO

The Rojas family of Mount Rainier were visited by firefighters twice within 16 hours.  The first visit occurred on Sunday evening, December 21, at around 8:00 pm.  A fire in a 1st floor bedroom of their apartment in the 3400 block of Bunker Hill Road activated their working smoke alarm.  The Rojas family knew exactly what to do, get out and stay out.  Within 15 minutes of arrival firefighters had extinguished the fire, however, the damage was already done, the entire apartment was gutted.  All their belongings, including Christmas presents were destroyed.  The fire caused an estimated $40,000 in damages and left the family with the clothes they were wearing.  Jose Rojas, his wife Rosa and children Sylvia and Joshua were provided a hotel room courtesy of their apartment management for the night.

Prince George's County Firefighters visited the Rojas family a second time on Monday morning.  This time they came bearing toys for the 12 and 9 year old children and gift cards for mom and dad.  The mood was a bit more jolly than the night before.  Firefighters from the 4th Battalion, Community Outreach and Office of the Fire Marshal rolled into the Quality Inn in College Park with lights glaring and siren blaring alerting the community we were there to help.

Toys donated though the generosity of County residents to the Departments Toys for Tots program were age and gender selected and presented to Sylvia and Joshua, both students at Mount Rainier Elementary School.  Each year the Fire/EMS Department keeps aside donated toys just for incidents like this.  The family is already suffering from the loss of their home and we do what we can to ensure they have some semblance of a Christmas Day.

Battalion Chief Brian Frankel accepted cash donations from on-duty firefighters to purchase gift cards that were provided to Jose and Rosa.  Frankel is also arranging for a donation of clothes for the children that will be delivered personally on Tuesday.

The family also stopped by the Bunker Hill Fire/EMS Department and received the last Public Safety Holiday Food Basket.  The Red Cross has provided vouchers for food, clothing and shelter for the next four days.  Typically the Red Cross provided three days of shelter, however, that would mean vacating their temporary shelter on Christmas Day.  The Red Cross has avoided that situation and has provided an extra day of shelter.