PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Support is pouring in for the family who lost their father and local grocer Bassam Awad in a massive fire on Flatbush Avenue Wednesday.
More than $20,000 has been raised for the three-generation Awad family who lived at 265 Flatbush Ave., at St. Marks Avenue, where the fatal blaze killed the 46-year-old who ran the neighboring Haifa Market, and gutted the building.
To help the family, a friend of Awad’s niece created a GoFundMe fundraising page hours after the fire, according to Bassam’s first cousin, Amal Awad. Since then, many have given donations, which are badly needed by the family, though they are reluctant to accept help at the moment, Awad said.
“I spoke to them at the funeral and I asked them ‘You know, there’s something out there called Go Fund Me,’ … I said ‘Are you ok with that? Are you ok with people donating to you?’ and [Bassam’s brother] looked at me with a smile and said ‘I don’t know what to say,’” Awad said Thursday, hours after her cousin was laid to rest in New Jersey.
“He looked at me and said, ‘Yes, everything is gone,’” she said.
In addition to monetary contributions, the school attended by many children in the Awad family, the Al-Noor School in Greenwood Heights, is gathering donations of clothing, according to a school administrator.
Amal is accepting donations on behalf of the family, as well, while they get back on their feet. Though one of Bassam’s sons is recovering after being hospitalized from the fire, she said his wife is still at Jacobi Hospital in an induced coma.
“They’ve got to get used to not having anything and building from the bottom,” she said.
To donate, visit the fundraising page for the Awad family, call the Al-Noor School at (718) 768-7181 or contact Awal Awad at (732) 904-1061.