A fire destroyed a portion of the Helping Hand Mission's warehouse Wednesday, reducing many donated items to ashes.
The warehouse housed items such as mattresses intended to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, but now the Helping Hand Mission needs help.
"We couldn't afford insurance. We've been scraping to make mortgage payments," said Sylvia Wiggins, of the Helping Hand Mission. "We saw the flames shooting in the air. We did everything we could, but it was just overwhelming."
Firefighters contained the blaze, for the most part, to a storage room, where the dozens of mattresses were charred beyond use. Fire crews knocked a hole in the roof.
In December, someone broke in and stole toys from the warehouse, then the mission lost a delivery van.
"I'm just overwhelmed. It's just something happening back-to-back," Wiggins said.
Investigators are not sure what caused the fire.
"We are really going through something. We're going to rally around. Hopefully we can get people to help us out, maybe some roofers. We desperately need people because we can't afford it," Wiggins said.
No one was injured in the fire.
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