After a fire at the Old Tea Warehouse supported accommodation for men in High Wycombe, a café stepped up to help the men out in the cold.
Reportedly an oil pan fire on the second floor of the accommodation sent around 20 residents onto the street on a chilly night with temperature plummeting as low as two degrees at the time of the incident around 6.15pm on Thursday February 24.
Matty, who works as a chef and lives on the first floor of Old Tea Warehouse, said: “It was chaos.
“I came back with friend who lives in the building opposite and there were six or seven fire engines, four police cars.
READ MORE: Man speaks out after housing fire sends residents into cold
Around twenty men from the accommodation were stood outside and “no one knew where we were going or what was happening,” Matty said.
“There’s a café down the corner, they came up with six pizzas and coffees.”
Matty walked the Bucks Free Press reporter to the café, The Front Room, and thanked the founder Lauren Ross and team for their help.
Ms Ross replied: “Thank you, we did it from the bottom of our hearts and just wanted to help out, kind of you to come in.”
She emphasised it was thanks to the entire café team and her partner Glory Botesse they were able to help, after someone tagged them on a Facebook post asking for blankets or food to the scene.
“We went there around 9.30pm and took around 25 coffees and some pizzas just to help them.
READ MORE: Man rescued from fire at Old Tea Warehouse in High Wycombe
“The residents were outside, a lot of them freezing, they had been there for a while.
“The gentleman who came to thank, his mom comes here sometimes, and we want to help the community and help the people that are in there.
“Because even when I was outside I was freezing and I thought ‘we need to help them, there are so many people in hotels in High Wycombe‘.
Spokesperson for Riverside, the social housing provider behind Old Tea Warehouse commented:
"We would also like to extend our thanks for the community response received, particularly Pizza Go Go and The Front Room who delivered hot food and drinks, our partners Wycombe Homeless Connection for providing toiletries and food parcels for relocated residents, Wycombe Outreach Team whose staff volunteered to help us move residents to alternative accommodation, and Bucks Council who provided an emergency supply of beds to support.”
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