Officer lends helping hand to residents routed by fire

Fairfield police Officer Sandy Sears has helped gather donations for Transitional Living Inc. in Hamilton. Residents are still recovering from an Aug. 2 fire that struck the Princeton Road facility.

Staff photo by Nick Daggy Fairfield police Officer Sandy Sears has helped gather donations for Transitional Living Inc. in Hamilton. Residents are still recovering from an Aug. 2 fire that struck the Princeton Road facility.

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By Michael D. Pitman, Staff Writer Updated 9:29 AM Tuesday, September 7, 2010

HAMILTON — Kathy Becker didn’t know how she was going to take care of 26 people after an Aug. 2 fire destroyed much of the apartments at Transitional Living.

That was before the CEO of Transitional Living, 2052 Princeton Road, got a call from Fairfield police Officer Sandy Sears.

Sears told Becker, a former Hamilton City Council member, she had “a little” donation for those displaced from the Treatment Assessment Program apartments. Becker said Sears has a skewed idea of what “little” means.

“When Sandy told me she had some stuff for me to pick up and I went down with my little Honda Fit, I was like, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” Becker said. “There were refrigerator boxes cut across filled to the top several times.”

And the donations have continued.

Transitional Living helps people with mental health issues, and professionals are on call 24 hours a day for the county’s police agencies. The organization began working with area police agencies in 1994 and train area police officers to have “a basic knowledge of signs and symptoms” of mental health issues.

In addition to those living in the TAP apartments, 15 live in a group home at the rear of the property. Transitional Living assists more than 700 people who live in the community, Becker said.

Sears e-mailed donation requests to city staff and regional police agencies as soon as she heard about the fire. She knew the clients would be doing without a lot.

“Here’s a group of people who are trying to start over, and trying to get healthy. And typically when they come here, they have little to nothing,” said Sears, who’s been with the Fairfield Police Department since June 2000.

In the early morning hours of Aug. 2, an electrical fire started in the TAP building. No one was injured. Since the fire, the county has allowed those displaced to stay at Resolutions, a 400-bed minimum security jail on Second Street.

Most will return to the facility in two weeks, some will graduate.

Fairfield police Chief Mike Dickey said the “excellent partnership” his department has with Transitional Living is part of the reason the donation response was overwhelming.

“They were faced with a real need,” he said. “It was only a natural instinct for a leader in our department to step up and return a lot that has been given to us over the years.”

It will be a couple more weeks before the bulk of the building is ready, Becker said. It could be up to six months, though, before the two apartments significantly affected by the fire are livable, she said.

“People lost everything, and the things they had in there couldn’t be used due to smoke damage, due to water damage,” Becker said.

To contribute to the effort, call Sears at (513) 896-8251.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or mpitman@coxohio.com. Follow at twitter.com/mdpitman.

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