Fire that killed three spotlights “unique vulnerabilities” facing Baltimore immigrants

Advocates assisting families after a deadly Southeast Baltimore fire say poor housing conditions and language barriers can make it harder for Baltimore’s immigrants to recover when disaster strikes. 

Officials are still investigating the cause of the Tuesday morning blaze in the Baltimore Highlands neighborhood that killed three people, including two children, and displaced nearly 20.

A single family from Guatemala lost three people: an 8-year-old boy, his 13-year-old sister and their 22-year-old cousin. The teenage girl and the man, who has an infant child in Guatemala, died later this week in a hospital. The children’s mother declined to be interviewed Friday.

Among those displaced by the fire was Antonia Mejia Ramos and her family, originally from Honduras. Mejia Ramos said Friday that the nine members of her family have found another home to rent together.

“We are trusting in the body of God and the support of the people,” she said in Spanish. 

Immediately after the fire, neighbors, community organizations and city agencies mobilized to help the families who lived in the 3400 block of East Lombard Street. 

Among the first priorities has been finding new housing and making arrangements to send the three bodies to be buried in Guatemala, said Susana Barrios, vice president of the Latino Racial Justice Circle. Funerals have not yet been scheduled. 

Barrios volunteered Tuesday as an interpreter between the families and Red Cross volunteers. She said one man who was burned on his back and knees left the hospital with an IV needle still stuck in his arm and likely requires more medical attention. 

The young man went back to work Wednesday, Barrios said, along with another man who she said cannot lift heavy items. 

“They went to work because they were afraid of losing their jobs and jobs are hard to come by,” Barrios said Friday, her voice cracking. “They keep on going, they keep on working.”

Mark Parker, pastor of the nearby Breath of God Lutheran Church, said immigrant families have “unique vulnerabilities” when they encounter a crisis, in part because they lack established social networks and knowledge of available resources.  Parker, who is also a City Council candidate for the District 1 seat, has been collecting donations for the families through his church.

“There’s the vulnerability of the quality of the housing that you can afford, based on being new to a country and a place and the opportunities that are available to you, there’s the vulnerability that comes with language access,” Parker said.

Those conditions means strong collaboration between those responding in a crisis is vital, he said. The Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Affairs is among the groups coordinating help for families. 

Barrios and Lucia Islas, president of Comité de Latino Baltimore, said more robust language resources are needed to help residents who don’t speak English in emergencies.

“We’re not enough to help everybody with language access,” Barrios said. “When it’s a response situation, having someone interpreting over the phone is not enough.”

The cause of the fire is still unknown and the family has not said how they believe the blaze began.

While Islas and Barrios said they weren’t speaking specifically to this incident, generally, they said, immigrant families in the Baltimore area sometimes live in crowded or substandard housing conditions, because they can’t afford other options or don’t know their rights.

Islas said it’s common for new immigrants in the U.S. to live at first with other families or with extended family, like some of the families displaced by the fire.

“For me, that makes me proud of them, that’s how we start,” she said. 

Landlords also take advantage of tenants with limited English skills or knowledge of the law, Barrios said. Some homes are unlicensed or poorly maintained. 

“They know that the people living there, their situation is very vulnerable,” Barrios said. “People are ignorant of what the law and their rights are, so they are very scared and they accept living in substandard situations.”

At the blackened rowhouse on East Lombard Street where the fire began, stuffed animals and flowers filled the stoop Friday afternoon. Windows were boarded up with plywood and signs warned passersby that the site is still under investigation. 

City Councilman Zeke Cohen, who represents District 1, which includes Baltimore Highlands, said Friday he was surprised that such a devastating fire had broken out in that particular block, saying that other “disinvested areas” of his district tend to see more problems like code violations or “slum landlords.” 

“That part of Highlandtown is actually doing really well generally, in terms of there’s no vacancy, we’re seeing more people want to live in that area,” he said. 

Cohen said the scene of the tragic fire early Tuesday was one of the worst he had seen in his seven years representing the district. He praised neighbors and volunteers for coming together to support the displaced residents and grieving family. 

“We are a really resilient community,” Cohen said.