There were some very tense moments when Christine Wilson-Furlonger got a call the El Mayor restaurant was going up in flames early Thursday morning.
The executive director of Street Help got the call at 3:30 a.m., and knowing there were clients asleep inside the homeless shelter, Wilson-Furlonger says she wasted no time getting to the 900-block of Wyandotte Street East.
When she arrived, there were seven people asleep inside, unaware a fire was raging in the next building.
"I woke everybody, made everybody put a wet face cloth over their mouth and nose because you can't breathe in that stuff," she later said.
The smoke inside the shelter was thick, and even around the corner where Wilson-Furlonger relocated her clients to a staff apartment, she could smell the fire burning.
Later in the morning, she was surprised by the damage from the fire.
"It's just amazing how much debris is there," said Wilson-Furlonger. "We were so fortunate that not a single ember hit our roof. Being in such close proximity, that's terrifying."
Staff and clients returned to Street Help hours later, but much of the food kept there to feed the homeless will have to be thrown out. Wilson-Furlonger says while canned food and everything kept in the fridge and freezer should be okay, much of the bread and other perishables is not safe to eat.
She said the Sikh community in Windsor stepped up to provide food.
Meanwhile, Wilson-Furlonger feels for the Abbas family that owns El Mayor.
"They're really, really devastated," she said. "This is their whole, entire world, you know, their livelihood. Everything they've built into their business there, it's completely gone."
