LAWRENCE — Something withstood the fire that devoured 14 buildings in South Lawrence last month.

An evergreen tree stands between the charred remains of two Habitat for Humanity houses on Market Street. When volunteers got back onto the site recently, they built a picket fence around the tree to protect it as a landmark, of sorts.

"There's a lot of affection for that tree," said Larry Sharp, executive director of Merrimack Valley Habitat for Humanity. "It survived the fire."

At 2:30 a.m. one month ago today, about 200 people fled into the 12 degree morning, many clad only in pajamas and slippers, as fire swept through 14 buildings — most of them multifamily houses — on Parker, Market and Springfield streets.

The cause of the fire, which originated in an old nightclub under renovation, has been called accidental and may never be known. But the city, home and business owners, and nonprofit organizations are taking steps toward rebuilding that block and the lives of the displaced families.

One month later, the Red Cross, and the money raised through donors, has helped all of the families who asked for assistance to find new homes.

The city is a few weeks from having the site cleaned up and ready for rebuilding, Mayor Michael Sullivan said. A contractor started cleaning up the site last week.

"In 30 days, we've moved fast," Sullivan said. "I think we've helped the people and in the long run, it's helping the city's image that the site is being cleared expeditiously. It took a lot of hard work."

But the real hard work is measured in the progress those who lost everything have made, and how the community has rallied around them.

In the debris, hope rises

Ruthie Reyes, her husband, Felix, and their four children were supposed to move into a Habitat for Humanity home on Market Street a few days before the fire struck. Now, they've started unpacking their boxes. They're staying in their Tenney Street apartment, turning down an offer from Habitat for Humanity to move into a temporary home on Gale Street.

"I'm just tired of moving here and there," said Ruthie Reyes, who has moved her family six times in the 17 years since she and Felix moved here from the Dominican Republic. She said she couldn't move her family to another temporary home. "It's confusing. Like you're stuck somehow."

But her friends give her hope.

"They say, 'Ruthie, we're gonna build a house in three days for you,'" she said.

Every Thursday and Saturday since the fire, volunteers have returned to Market Street to pick up debris, according to Sharp of Habitat for Humanity.

Merrimack Valley Habitat for Humanity lost two completed structures — a single-family home and a duplex — in their Market Common project. Two of the homes were for the Reyeses and the eight-member family of Tshibamba Mbiye, an immigrant from the Republic of the Congo. Two more duplexes, which were far from completion, could have housed four additional families, but also were destroyed in the blaze.

The Mbiyes will move into the temporary home on Gale Street until their Market Street home is rebuilt.

"The community's response has been everything you could hope for," Sharp said. "It's been heartwarming.

Finding new places to live

Jannette Ayala, her boyfriend, Luis Taveras, and their two children Naima, 1, and Jeremiah, 2, moved back to Springfield Street into a three-bedroom apartment. It is a few yards from the Springfield Street apartment they fled.

Ayala didn't want to move back to the neighborhood. She is on the waiting list for (subsidized) housing in North Reading.

"It's the only thing we could find for now," said Ayala, who is pregnant with twins, due on July 2.

Like Ayala and Taveras, the families who lived in the nine apartment buildings that were destroyed have found new housing.

A total of 21 of the 24 families and households displaced by the fire have found new places to live, said Jamie Devlin, interim executive director of the Merrimack Valley chapter of the American Red Cross. That includes those who lived in a home for the mentally disabled that was one of the first buildings to burn down. Devlin said the Red Cross, and other service agencies, never heard from the other three families, so they don't know what happened to them.

A total of 11 families are settled into permanent homes, while 10 are in some type of housing but looking for something more permanent, Devlin said.

Ayala and Taveras are doing their best to make their apartment a home. With a prepaid credit card from the Red Cross, Ayala and Taveras bought necessities like beds for the children and a kitchen table. They also bought curtains.

The Red Cross helped out by giving them the first and last month's rent for the apartment. The organization spent a total of $60,000 helping families like Ayala's with prepaid credit cards to buy supplies, and security deposits plus last month's rent for families.

Naima and Jeremiah are in day care so Ayala has a chance to run errands, go to medical appointments and rest. She hopes after the babies are born she can return to school to become a certified nurse's assistant. Taveras is not working and is looking for a job, something close to home so he can be around for Ayala.

Taveras said things aren't exactly back to normal, but the family has adjusted.

"We are doing good," he said. "I feel better."

Help will continue to be there

For those like Ayala and Taveras who now have apartments, the focus has shifted to how to fill them when the Red Cross money runs out. The prepaid credit cards provided through the Red Cross had up to $1,900 on them.

Many have headed to Greater Lawrence Community Action. Isabelle Melendez, who works there, said many families have come to her. She is coordinating all of the donations for the fire, which now fills three floors of the former Saunders School in Lawrence, the central drop-off and storage space. The school is no longer open.

"Whatever they need, we give it to them," she said. "They are putting their life together. They have nothing."

Melendez said people continue to donate everything from beds to towels to canned goods. She said they have had so many donations, they haven't even opened up all of the bags.

"It's overwhelming," she said. "In the school there are three floors and you don't see one room empty. It's incredible."

Sullivan said the city's considering keeping a central storage space for all the donated goods.

"If something like this happens again, we have a place that has furniture stored right now," Sullivan said.

At Lazarus House, another charity on the frontline of the fire, spokeswoman Lana Schofield said it will continue to help families get assistance, although it is not taking any more donations for the victims. She said all the money that was donated for the fire victims was used or will be used to help them.

"Through the community's goodness, we were able to channel all this assistance to the victims," Schofield said. "The outpouring of help was just so good, so phenomenal."

It may have been a month ago, but the help for the fire victims keeps pouring in. Charities said people recognize that perhaps the toughest part — rebuilding — has yet to begin.

Last Saturday, Big City Bar and Grill in Lawrence held a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity that raised $5,000. Customers bought $20 tickets to the event to enjoy bands and food. Jenn Hechemy-Little, who helped organize the event, works full time at Sovereign Bank and part time at the restaurant. She was amazed by the outpouring of support.

"People didn't forget," she said.

A month of challenges

Jan. 21: At 2:30 a.m., fire breaks out in the former Millennium nightclub at 44 Parker St. By 6 a.m., 14 buildings on Parker, Market and Springfield streets are destroyed. Hundreds flee into the cold as their homes burn down.

Jan. 29: The Red Cross raises nearly $90,000 to help the victims of the South Lawrence fire, enough to recoup everything the organization spent helping the victims and to give them money for food, clothes and rent. They announce they are no longer accepting donations for the fire.

Feb. 7: Investigators rule out arson as the cause of the blaze, but due to such extreme damage, the cause was officially listed as "undetermined." A task force of local, state and federal investigators believe it started accidentally, but they don't know how.

Feb. 11: Work starts on cleaning up the site. Mayor Michael Sullivan says that it will be cleaned up in a month, and rebuilding can begin.

Feb. 20: The 21 families who asked the Red Cross for help have found new housing.

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