Fire displaces women living at secret shelter

Nine months pregnant and a victim of domestic abuse, Shanele had turned to the Elizabeth Stone House because it was the only place where she could feel safe. Just last week, she moved into the house, which ran a secret shelter for battered women.

But on Tuesday, Shanele was once again looking for a safe place to stay, after a two-alarm fire consumed the top floor of the Jamaica Plain three-decker. The fire forced the shelter to close and left Shanele and six other women and their six children grappling with the destruction of a refuge for people with nowhere else to turn.

"Where am I going to go with my baby?" said Shanele, 29. The staff at the shelter asked that last names of residents not be published.

Staff at the 30-year-old nonprofit have turned to their allies among social service agencies to create a temporary solution for those driven out by the fire. The displaced included participants in a program for women with mental health troubles. With the help of the American Red Cross, state and city officials, and private groups, the women and their children have been given access to shelter and emergency shelter services, officials of the agency said yesterday.

But the closing of the secret shelter and the loss of its mental health program, believed to be the only one in the state that allows mothers to stay with their children while they get help, is straining the state's social network, officials said yesterday.

And that strain will last for months while leaders of the nonprofit investigate whether the money they receive from their insurance will allow them to rebuild or search for a space to create a new, secure refuge.

"It's a big loss," said Toni Troop, spokeswoman for Jane Doe Inc., an umbrella group of 60 social service providers including the Stone House. "The loss of any single bed, never mind an entire program, in Massachusetts just diminished the availability of emergency shelters. There are already as many people turned away as are served on any given day."

Troop said the Stone House is one of 32 emergency shelters for domestic violence victims in the state, and that there is no fast way to replace the beds lost by the fire. Officials estimated the damage at $175,000.

But for Erika, who had just set up the playpen for her infant and was hauling the last of her goods into the apartment Tuesday afternoon when the building started to burn, the loss was impossible to quantify.

"I'm just devastated," said Erika, 34. "I just know my life was starting over . . . [now] I have nothing -- nothing, nothing, nothing."

Beth Shapiro, president of the board of directors of Elizabeth Stone House, said the group is seeking donations. It also is looking for real estate it can use over the next several months while it makes final decisions about rebuilding.

About 25 women are on a waiting list for the mental health program, staff members said.

"What we need is alternative space in the short term," she said. "It's really too precious of a resource to have disabled for any period of time."

Yesterday, inside the damaged building, purple drapes made by past residents still hung in the second-floor lounge. Up the stairs, fire had darkened the walls to sooty black and twisted the smoke detectors.

In Erika's old room, where fire officials said the blaze originated, chunks of plaster and gray soot covered the floor. Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said an electrical cord tied into a knot had overheated, sparking the fire that spread to the rear porch.

Maryann Chaisson, a program administrator, said she had used an extinguisher to try to put out the fire after she noticed flames above the bureau in Erika's room. But the fire spread.

The women and their children are being counseled for trauma from the fire.

"These women came in without basically anything to begin with, but then it's gone," said Chaisson. "They come in there traumatized. It's just one more thing to add to the list."

Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com; Yee at ayee@globe.com.