Students Raise Funds for Millerton Fire

On the morning of November 6, a devastating house fire took the lives of two people. At 7:58 a.m., a neighbor reported a house fire on South Elm Avenue.

Within minutes, the house was engulfed in flames, and firefighters arrived from the Millerton, Amenia, Wassaic, Copake, Ancram, Hillsdale, Lakeville, Sharon, and Falls Village Fire Companies. According to Poughkeepsie Journal, fifty civilian volunteers also rushed to the site of the incident to help. After four hours, the firefighters managed to extinguish the flames but were unable to save the
two residents. Jenny Yang, age 24, and Wangdi Tamang, age 30 perished in the fire. The house belonged to Amy Yang, owner of Golden Wok, a Japanese and Chinese restaurant beloved by many members of the school community. When her husband passed away seven years ago, Ms. Yang took over the business and raised her four children as a single parent. She was among the three people who managed to escape from the house before the firefighters arrived. Jenny Yang, one of the victims of the fire, was her daughter.

In addition to the losses suffered by the Yang and Tamang family, three adjacent houses were also damaged by the fire. St. Luke’s Society, the community service club on campus, organized a fundraiser that collected over $1000 in donations to support the affected families. Billy Meneses ’22, co-head of St. Luke’s Society, said, “When a tragedy like this happens, it wakes Hotchkiss students up and makes [them] feel like they really have a responsibility to [help] the people in their community.”

As the investigation into the exact cause of the fire continues, the surrounding community created a  GoFundMe link for the Yang family. Donations have reached $120,000, exceeding the original goal of $30,000.