ABLIA, Iowa — Just one day after the fire at the R.O. Cramer building made it a total loss, those who lived and worked there are picking up the pieces.

The investigation into the cause of the fire is still underway, with no official cause stated yet, other than that the fire department believes the fire started on the second floor. Early Tuesday morning, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that human remains were found in the building.

“And we started work again this morning and we did find human remains. We have no identification yet, so I’m not going to speak to names until we get confirmation from the state medical examiner’s office,” said Sheriff Joe Worth. He said another press release will be sent out when next of kin for the family is notified.

From a community response standpoint, Worth could not be more grateful for the help yesterday.

“When I spoke to the landlord yesterday, he had already secured housing for everybody … It’s just amazing the way this community pulls together. And it’s something that brings you pride. It’s, it makes you proud to be of a community like this,” said Worth.

Red Cross was helping with clothes, speaking to all eight of the displaced residents yesterday. Monroe County Public Health posted on Facebook all of the clothes donations that are needed for the families who lost everything.

Big Blue Nutrition sits right around the corner from the R.O. Cramer building, and because of the owners’ relationships with the other small business owners they felt inclined to help.

“There’s a lot of families that are in need right now, clothing, gift cards, like they’re 100% having to rebuild everything as well as several small businesses that hit really close to home for us as we’re just a block over from them. So we’re doing as much as we possibly can to just help absolutely everybody who is in need,” said Taylor Guffey, a club partner at Big Blue Nutrition.

Big Blue is serving as a drop off point in conjunction with Monroe County Public Health, where people who want to donate clothes or food can stop there.

The business is also collecting money, in person or over Venmo, with all of it going to the victims of the fire. The Venmo donations can be made to “@malloriepaige”, that is the owner’s, Mallorie Varese, account. Be wary of scammers, as multiple accounts have been made copying the same profile picture, but spelling the Venmo name just slightly different. You can scan this QR code in the photo below to know that you are sending money to the correct account.

All tips given to Big Blue this week will also go towards the victim relief fund. Big Blue is posting Amazon wish lists for the victims on the business’ Facebook page here in the next day or so. The store was giving out free drinks to first responders and victims yesterday, along with covering drinks for the first responders who helped out for the rest of the week.

“Small business wise, we all correlate like we all support each other, whether they come in here and shop or we’re over there shopping. We are all pretty close, small business wise,” said Guffey.

Monroe County Public Health’s Facebook page has a list of clothing sizes needed. The department is also posting what else can be donated, like food and gift cards.

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