HAMILTON HEIGHTS — Melisa Mendez is going home.
The 15-year-old who died during last week's Hamilton Heights fire will be buried in her native Dominican Republic, thanks to ticket donations from JetBlue.
The airline donated seven flight vouchers to the Mendez family after an executive in New York read about the family struggling financially to claim the teen's body from the morgue, JetBlue spokeswoman Elizabeth Ninomiya said.
Melisa was overcome by smoke in the fast-moving Aug. 18 blaze that fire officials have blamed on an overloaded power strip.
Before leaving for the burial, Mendez's family will hold a wake at 3 p.m. Thursday at Ortiz Funeral Home on 190th Street and Broadway, according to Ortiz.
"A lot of people have been asking about a service," said the Rev. Baltazar Sanchez of the Church of the Annunciation. "They want to do something for her family."
A service at the church is tentatively set for Friday, he added.
Melisa and her mother were active members of the congregation. This weekend the church raised $3,000 in donations, which it had planned to use to help get the young woman's body out of the morgue.
When the priest called Melisa's mother with the news, he received an unexpected surprise.
"Someone else paid for [the body to be picked up]," Sanchez said. "I asked her who, but she said she didn't know."
The Mendez family made arrangements to pick up the body on Tuesday, Sanchez said.
The $3,000 collected will now be used to help pay for anything else the family needs to recover from the fire. The church has also gathered food, kitchen appliances and hundreds of clothing items for all of the families affected by the Hamilton Heights fire.
The church will distribute the goods later this week with the help of City Councilman Mark Levine's office, the priest said.
West Harlem Group Assistance also set up a fund to help families affected by the fire. Officials from the group were not immediately available for comment.
