BALTIMORE (VINnews/Sandy Eller) – Members of Baltimore’s Jewish community extended a helping hand to first responders searching for survivors of a major gas explosion that leveled three homes, showing up at the scene with cold drinks, food and other emergency supplies. As previously reported on VIN News (https://bit.ly/3kBIcKi), one woman was confirmed dead and four people were injured in the explosion that was reported to the fire department shortly before 10 AM Monday morning.

After hearing about the explosion located not far from Baltimore’s Jewish community, Frank Storch, founder of The Chesed Fund and Project Ezra, pulled dozens of bottles of cold water out of the refrigerator used by the synagogue located at the back of his home and loaded them into a giant cooler filled with ice. Storch headed to the site of the explosion on the 4200 block of Labyrinth Road, distributing the water, 20 pies of pizza, masks, hand sanitizer and paper towels to emergency workers and neighbors with the help of five students from the nearby Ner Israel Rabbinical College.

With temperatures soaring into the nineties and the humidity running high, Storch estimated that the group distributed approximately 400 water bottles at the scene of the explosion, replenishing his supply from his own stock and supplementing that with another 100 bottles purchased from a local 7-Eleven.

“It makes us all very proud that we can work together with all communities to make a kiddush Hashem and for people to appreciate that the Jewish people does its best to help everyone out wherever there is a need,” Storch told VIN News, noting that the emergency responders also included several Orthodox Jewish firemen. “We want to make a difference, especially during a tragedy like this.”