Meek Mill offers his help on a visit to victims of fatal Southwest Philly Fire
Over the July 4th weekend, a massive row-home fire in Philadelphia killed 4 young children in Southwest Philadelphia. But if the fire wasn’t devastating enough, it was the backlash of citizens accusing the fire department of purposefully being late in responding that really lit the fuse.
Many of the homeowners claimed the fire had been burning for close to 30 minutes before any fire officials showed up, even though the closest station is a 3 minute walk from the area, and a 35 second drive time. This caused a massive protest on Monday that even led to a small riot breaking out. Three people were subsequently arrested, and one woman was hospitalized after an apparent seizure. Tuesday the GPS logs were released that showed the fire department did in fact show up in time to fight the fire.
“That incident went from 3 houses to 8 houses in 10 minutes,” said Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer, “So if that fire had been burning for 30 minutes like everyone said, the whole block would’ve burnt down.”
Mayor Nutter also said it was disgraceful for the citizens to be casting doubt on the professionalism of the fire fighters, and referring to them as “murderers” in the aforementioned protests.
The light of the situation however, is that also on Tuesday Meek Mill showed up to show support to the residents involved in the fatal fire. The 27 year old rapper grew up in North Philadelphia.
“I just wanted to come by and show my support to all of the families and everybody that was hurt by this situation. I feel I’m in a position where I can help these people. Anything I can do to help them with their losses, I’m gonna do it,” he said as the onlookers watched him walk the up the block.
Meek plans on donating whatever money he can to the victims in hopes of helping the matter.
-Curt Cramer (@CurtisRemarc)
