On Wednesday, January 19 at 4:00 am, a fire destroyed the home of the Zelaya-Hernandez family.  One of the family's daughters was fatally injured and the other family members were hospitalized, including their three surviving children.  A fund has been established for the support of the family in the aftermath of this disaster.  On January 24, her condition grave, daughter Kelli, 13 years old, lost her fight and succumbed to smoke and fire-related injuries.

You can send donations for the Zelaya Family Relief Fund and make checks payable to the Hyattsville Community Development Corporation, 5004 42^nd Ave, Hyattsville MD 20781.  If sending a donation by check, please make a note that the donation is for the Zelaya Family Relief Fund.  You can also donate with Paypal using the "Make a Donation" button to the right.  Please make notation in the Paypal dialogue box “for the Zelaya Family Relief Fund”. Some donors have reported to us that the Paypal dialogue box does not function with their system.  If this happens, you can still complete your donation and then email us at eisenberg@hyattsvillecdc.org to let us know that you have donated to this Relief Fund.

Thank you for all of your clothing donations.  We have received sufficient clothing for the Zelaya family at this point.  We have removed the link to the clothing donation form for the time being.  We will reinstate it if more donations become necessary.

Thank you for your support. 

For a Neighbor's Eyewitness Account and Appeal click the Read More link below the image.

Dear Friend, 

I'm guessing that you saw some of the extended newspaper and TV coverage of the tragic house fire across the street from my house in Hyattsville in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday Jan. 19. Sadly, it happened just hours after Marianne and I got home from a terrific "Capricorn Birthday Boys" get together at Jackie's Restaurant's Sidebar Lounge in Silver Spring.

Just a few hours later, all hell broke loose. 

I'm not sure I've ever witnessed anything like waking up to shouts and terrible screams, opening my eyes in my dark bedroom, seeing the neighborhood lit by an orange glow, running over to pull back the curtains and seeing their 90-year old wood house outlined and engulfed in fire. That horrible first sight is engraved in my brain.

Luckily there were other light sleepers on the block and five other people had already called 911 by the time I did. All our local fire companies responded within minutes, and more than 60 firefighters and emergency medical units were on the scene. As best as I can tell, from the first sparks, the house was completely on fire in eight minutes. The firefighters went in to find the girls before any fire hoses hit the house with water -- truly heroic work.

Both the parents and two of the four children got out in time, all hospitalized for days with smoke inhalation. Two other daughters, ages 9 and 13, weren't so lucky. Both were in cardiac arrest when firefighters got them out, not breathing, and one died on the scene, the other is in a hyperbaric chamber in a Baltimore hospital in critical condition and sadly, the doctor’s prognosis is not promising. Their little dog Pumpkin also made it out. We think he has a new home.

The house and all its contents are gone. Clothes, tools, documents, family possessions: the works. The family has nothing except the goodwill of friends.

They are a good family, and go by the names of Zelaya and Hernandez, with roots in El Salvador. The father recently lost his own construction company. We knew the girls because they walked by our house to the home of some school chums every day. I especially got to know Kimberly, the nine-year-old girl who died, because she loved to stop and play with spring kittens and wanted to make sure they got good homes (we have two of them now). She was a pretty, chubby-faced button-eyed, dark haired girl. pigeon-toed and sweet and had not yet lost her childlike innocence and open inquisitiveness, which makes her death even more devastating to us.  

To the credit of my neighbors, more than 60 have met and formed committees to take care of the family, from immediate concerns to long-range ones. I'm following up with you as my friend to help us with cash donations. Please...please send me a check for any amount you can afford. Let me be brazen and ask those of you with good jobs and those of you who are parents to dig deep. (We've also set it up the fund so you can take it off your taxes). 

It's 22 degrees out right now, and going down to 17. The burned out house looks ghastly in the dark. The survivors are either staying with neighbors or are still in the hospital. There is a funeral for Kimberly soon. You and I are in warm homes, with loved ones. Please, again, send along a contribution, fat as you can make it, payable to the "Hyattsville Community Development Corp." and note yours is a contribution to the "Zelaya-Hernandez Relief Fund."

You can contribute online, even use PayPal. Just follow the link bellow.

Please take a moment in your busy lives and help these worthy folks. Thanks.

Bill Holland