Many hands reached out to help those left homeless by Wednesday’s wall fire and flooding at the DeKalb Center.

Building and Community Services Director Bill Nicklas said many people were busy Thursday caring for and moving people from 13 separate apartments damaged in the 1100 W. Lincoln Hwy. building.

Members of the Red Cross and the Salvation Army fed and found shelter for the residents last night. They returned Thursday morning to organize volunteer efforts aimed at relocating the affected residents.

Sixth Ward Ald. Jamie Pennington was able to recruit the help of five members of Phi Kappa Sigma who came and helped residents from the damaged north end move to empty rooms in the south end of the building.

“That was really great of them to help out on such short notice,” Pennington said.

Pennington said DeKalb Center owner and manager Joe Navilio has been able and responsible both in upgrading the building in the last six months and in personally handling the present crisis.

“Joe has been very cooperative with the city and made tremendous strides” improving the building, Pennington said.

Navilio also was impressed by the efforts of both the city workers and other groups who volunteered assistance.

“The people in this town should thank people like (Assistant Building and Community Services Director) Rick Monas. I’ve worked with inspectors in Chicago and all over and I’ve never seen anything better,” Navilio said.

Navilio said besides getting the building to conform to the codes once again he will launch efforts to improve the look of the building. “Every room is going to be repainted,” he said.

is goal is to attract students to the building, an effort he said he hopes wasn’t set back by the fire.

The damage at DeKalb Center is the result of two days of mishaps which began with an fire started by two children.