Burmese Muslim community helping out families impacted by Carbon St. collapse

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) – It’s known as “the center” by the Burmese Muslim community in Syracuse, the place where everybody can come together. To the family who lived in the house that exploded and then collapsed on Carbon Street, it was like a second home.

Rosa Na is a member of the Burmese Muslim community. She’s known the Fuje family, who’s lived in Syracuse for four years and lived in the house on Carbon Street, for about three years.

“They’re a really nice family. They’ve always been involved, every event that’s been happening since they moved here,” Na said. “The kids are very smart in school. The parents are very supportive with the kid’s education with the center, and they’re always donating and visiting.”

Na says the families involved in the house explosion and collapse on Carbon Street have known each other since they both lived in Burma. They later reconnected as refugees in Malaysia and then, finally again, in Syracuse, where tragedy fell upon them.

“The family that was in incident and us, we’re all refugees. We’re all free from the same country. We meet again here, we reconnected. And this is what connects us, you know, this place,” Na said.

The Burmese Muslim community is hosting a fundraiser from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every Saturday until further notice. They will be selling food and taking donations of clothes and essentials for the families.

“We would like other people if they would like to donate and stuff for the family to please join us and help us as much as we can because we’re a very small community, and we want to help these people. We can’t do much, but with everybody else helping, it means so much to us,” Na said.

For more information on the donation drive, click to see the Burmese Muslim Community Facebook post here.

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