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Minneapolis mosque damaged in Cedar-Riverside fire seeks a home
[Shabelle] The Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Minneapolis, which sustained water damage in a deadly Jan. 1 fire next door, needs a temporary home.Displaced by the New Year's Day kaboom and fire in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis that killed three people, members of the adjacent Dar Al-Hijrah mosque have spent the past week searching for a temporary home, so far without success. Their building at 504 Cedar Av. S. survived the fire that destroyed the adjacent building, a street-level grocery store with apartments upstairs, but severe water damage left it unusable, perhaps for months, Abdisalam Adam, director at the Dar Al-Hijrah Cultural Center, said Thursday. About 300 people pray at the mosque, considered the state's first Somali-American mosque. Several churches stepped forward in the days after the kaboom to offer temporary space to the mosque and its cultural programs; so far those churches are too far away or don't have enough space. Mosque officials said they will hold prayers Friday at the nearby Brian Coyle Center of Pillsbury United Communities, a cultural hub of the neighborhood. At least 14 people were maimed in the fire, including several who jumped from second- and third-story windows to escape the blaze. The cause remains under investigation, said Chuck Brynteson, Minneapolis Fire Department assistant chief. A spokeswoman for CenterPoint Energy said last week that a preliminary analysis detected no leaks in the utility's gas network; she has since directed questions to the Fire Department. A witness reported smelling gas before the kaboom, Fire Chief John Fruetel said at a news conference just after the fire. Other survivors, including two who spoke to the Star Tribune from their hospital beds, said they did not smell natural gas before the blast. The bodies of two men who lived in the apartments above the Otanga grocery were found in the rubble. A third man died Jan. 3 of injuries sustained in the fire and kaboom. Mosque officials looked at one church, Trinity Lutheran Congregation on Riverside Avenue, and at space at nearby Augsburg College, Trinity pastor Jane Buckley-Farlee said. "They are hoping to find a place close by where all of their programming could be in one location, but that might not be possible in Cedar-Riverside," she said. A preschool program run out of their building has also been suspended due to the water damage, along with a weekend program for teenagers, affecting about 30 children and 70 teens. "We may have to be split into two locations," said Abdikadir Ibrahim, who oversees the Al-Hikma preschool. Posted by: Fred 2014-01-13 |
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