Jersey City residents displaced from their homes by a four-alarm blaze on Belmont Avenue last month are piecing their lives back together.

They received a helping hand today when city officials presented them with gift cards and cash cards, courtesy of Shop-Rite, Modell?s and the Jerramiah T. Healy Charitable Foundation for A Better Jersey City, at a City Hall ceremony.

And with assistance from Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli, local activist Esther Wintner contributed new clothing to the displaced families.

Andrea King and her boyfriend, Noel Micho, former tenants at 33 Belmont, are currently living at a friend?s house.

"I lost all of my identification and medication for my asthma," King said. "But when I realized that all of my pictures were gone, that?s what really hurt."
Micho added, "We lost all of our clothes and TVs, computer, everything."

Jersey City fire officials say the blaze started at 27 Belmont and then spread to 25 and 29 Belmont. In all, six multi-family homes suffered fire or smoke damage.

Tanisha Pleasant, her husband, Darett Johnson, their 8- and 17-year-old daughters, and Tanisha?s brother, Andre Pleasant, former residents of 23 Belmont, are staying at the DoubleTree hotel in Jersey City.

"I just hate that I had to lose my home," said Johnson, an employee of the Jersey City Free Public Library. "For me it?s a change, but it has affected others who lived on Belmont even more."

Tanisha Pleasant says she prays a lot.

"I know things will work out. I just worry about my two girls and how they?ll feel when they go back to school," she said.

Chris Flamer, 37, formerly of 31 Belmont, said he?s been jumping from one friend?s couch to another.

Flamer said he forgot his phone inside his apartment when the fire erupted and had no way to contact his family. The family found out about the fire through the media and a friend?s Facebook page, he said.

"Belmont was my home for almost a year, and it?s really hard not knowing where I?m going to sleep anymore," he said."

By Aiyana Cronk/The Jersey Journal