Fund-raiser will aid city employee left homeless by fire
Date: 5/9/2012
May 9, 2012By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.comCHICOPEE — The municipal employees of Chicopee are coming together to help one of their own who lost everything in a recent house fire.
Carlssa Lisee, a Building Department employee, her husband, Alan and their 9-month-old son were victims of an April 29 fire that destroyed the two-family home Lisee shared with her parents, Linda and Robert Couture. Linda Couture, a longtime employee of the Chicopee Municipal Employees Credit Union, is also well-known to city employees.
The Assessor's Office, where Couture's sister Cindy Brown is a clerk, has organized a spaghetti supper fund-raiser for the two families at the Knights of Columbus Council #69, 460 Granby Road, on May 22 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tickets, priced at $10, are available at the Assessor's Office, the Mayor's Office, the Building Department, the Collector's Office, the Chicopee Municipal Credit Union, by calling 594-1430 or at the door.
Laura McCarthy, assessor for the City of Chicopee and one of the event's organizers, told Reminder Publications to her knowledge, the fire started on the porch of the home sometime around 7:30 a.m. and quickly engulfed the structure, destroying everything. The initial findings by the Fire Department were inconclusive regarding the cause, she added.
Brown said the fire was one of those unexpected shocks in life.
"They just ran out, they had no cell phones or anything," Brown said. "I found out about [the fire] while watching Channel 22 news."
Brown said she was distraught by the news story, as the report did not indicate if the home's occupants were alive or had perished. When she arrived on scene she said Couture's neighbors had already rallied around the families.
"People were coming to the house with wagons full of water, and clothes," Brown said. A neighbor offered to let the Coutures stay with her, and the Lisees found shelter in the rectory of Holy Name Church, where Linda Lisee is an active parishioner.
McCarthy added that, almost immediately, individuals also started leaving donations for the families at the Chicopee Municipal Credit Union.
She said the following day, April 30, Kenneth Ritchott, the city's Emergency Management director, broached the idea of hosting a fund-raiser to help the families. Because Brown worked in the Assessor's Office, McCarthy said she and the other assessors spearheaded the effort.
"It was apparent on Sunday that [the home] was a total loss," McCarthy said. "[We felt] it would be nice to have a fund-raiser to help them move on."
The office pulled the event together in one day, and began circulating flyers about the fund-raising dinner on May 1.
"There were so many people who wanted to help, we had to do it quickly," McCarthy said, noting that the Building Department saw a steady stream of individuals inquiring how they could help the day following the fire. She said her office also contacted the municipal credit union immediately and established an account called the Couture-Lisee Family Fire Fund "so that the [financial donations] were properly handled and accounted for."
Brown, she added, is in charge of that account. Individuals who would like to help the family, but can't attend the dinner, can make a donation at the credit union.
"We are thankful that they are alive and everybody made it out OK," Brown said. "They will survive and start over again."
