Downtown Kitchener businesses raising money for neighbours affected by apartment fire

A couple of businesses in Kitchener's downtown core are raising money to help residents who were affected by a fire Friday morning.

The Kitchener Fire Department and Waterloo Regional Police were called to thefire on the third floor of an apartment building on 37 King St.W., at around 9:30 a.m.

The building is between The Berlin restaurant and A Second Look Books and Movies store.

Crews were able to put out the fire before it affected the neighbouring buildings.

"There is potential for fire to spread rapidly in those buildings because of how old they are, how they have been built and the renovations that have been done over the years," said Kitchenerfire platoon chief Greg Willett.

Damage to the building is estimated at $350,000.

Gathering donations

The Berlin and The Museum have been collecting donations over the longweekend to help tenants who have been displaced by the fire.

"It's great to see the community come together to support each other," said David Marskell, CEO of The Museum.

"For us not to take care of our neighbours directly across the street from us, it would be a mistake."

The Museum is accepting donations for the rest of the week, either online or at its front desk, and will match the first $500 raised.

Marskell added that staff at The Museum intend to reach out to other neighbouring businesses on Monday to help raise more money.

Over the Easter long weekend, The Berlin has been collecting $5 from each entree sold to donate to its neighbours.

"We were getting ready on Friday morning to start the day and we noticed what was going on next door," said Andrea Hennige, a manager at The Berlin.

"The downtown community is a very close, tight-knit group of people and we wanted to do something that would help those that were so close to us."