Fresno fire burned women’s recovery shelter downtown. How to help, and what caused it
A women’s shelter and recovery program for people suffering from drug and alcohol addiction is looking for help after their downtown Fresno building burned down Sunday in a fire.
That blaze was caused by a roofing accident, said Jay Tracy, a deputy fire marshal with the Fresno Fire Department who investigated the fire on the corner of San Joaquin and L streets, near Arte Américas on Van Ness Avenue.
The 120-year-old building at 1651 L Street was home to 12 participants of The Light-House Recovery Program, Inc. The displaced women are temporarily being housed at Evangel Home, a Fresno homeless shelter, and Light-House staff are using part of Cornerstone Church’s administration building for office, therapy and classroom space, said Vikki Luna, founder and chief executive officer of faith-based Light-House Recovery.
Luna said the roof was being repaired when it caught fire. No one was injured.
Tracy said the blaze was started by a propane torch used to heat the edges of shingles as they were fit together. Tracy called the method a common and permitted roofing practice and said those responsible for the fire were not charged with a crime because it was an accident.
There was another destructive Fresno fire on Sunday, at an agriculture manufacturing company in south Fresno near Highway 99. The cause of that fire remained under investigation Monday. Fresno Fire Department’s hotline for reporting arson is 559-621-2776 (ARSN), or fire investigations is 559-621-4440.
How to help Light-House Recovery Program after fire
Light-House Recovery, founded in 2007, also helps children, but didn’t currently have any children living at the shelter when the fire struck, Luna said. In addition to substance abuse recovery, services offered by the organization include helping those suffering from domestic violence.
The residential program is a minimum of six months, and an additional three months of “after care,” Luna said.
“They are doing well, considering our circumstances,” Luna said of her recently-displaced clients. “I have some really good staff. Our therapist and counselor do a great job.”
Donations can be made to Light-House on the nonprofit’s website, lhrecovery.org. Monetary donations or gift cards are preferred to donated items since Light-House doesn’t currently have its own space, Luna said.
Luna is hopeful that someone will offer a four-bedroom house, or two adjacent two-bedroom units, in downtown Fresno or the Tower District for the use of her recovery program. The program also needs new computers. Light-House can be reached at 559-222-4824 or thelight-house@sbcglobal.net.
Historic downtown Fresno building destroyed
Light-House was operating out of a building built in 1901 that’s listed on a local register of historic resources.
According to that register, the L Street building was built in the Dutch colonial revival style for Alfred Kutner, who owned a hardware store and later became vice president and manager of Farmers National Bank. He sold it a few years later to businessman William Dickey, for whom nearby Dickey Playground is named. The house was then owned and occupied by developer J.C. Forkner from 1914 to 1920, and in the 1930s, the MacCrackens remodeled it for use as a home and medical office.
“The home, with its individualistic style, is unusual among the other large homes built in this neighborhood at about the same time,” the local register listing for the property continues.
Light-House has been operating out of that building since 2013. Luna said it was a rental home prior to that.
Her nonprofit didn’t use all of its 4,600-square-feet, she said, which included seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, four kitchens, two living rooms, and a huge basement.
