By Matt Rocheleau
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JULY 10, 2014
A Cambodian community group in Lowell will hold a vigil this evening to mourn victims from an apartment building fire that left seven people dead and sent shock waves of sorrow through the city.
Leaders in the Cambodian community said a significant number of families affected by the fire, including some who died, are of Cambodian descent.
“We’re incredibly saddened about this incident, and we want to do everything possible to support those who have been affected by the fire,” said Voop de Vulpillieres, deputy director of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Lowell.
The association has scheduled a candlelight vigil at 5:30 p.m. in front of Pailin Plaza, a Cambodian shopping complex about a quarter mile from the scene of the fire. The vigil will process to the apartment building, Vulpillieres said.
The apartment building on Branch Street is in a section of Lowell the city has designated as Cambodia Town.
Officials at the Cambodian organization have been working since early this morning to help coordinate support for those affected by the fire, Vulpillieres said.
She said the many of the city’s Cambodians are not native English speakers and are from low-income families.
The association’s aid efforts include offering free translation services for families who lost their homes and are gathered at a city senior center, she said. The organization is also helping with a relief fund that city officials set up through the Jeanne D’arc Credit Union.
“We want to ensure that the victims and the victims’ families and all of the people around them are well supported and taken care of,” Vulpillieres said.
Brandon Eang, who has been helping families at the senior center much of today, said the displaced have been given food and clothing, while investigators ask them about what happened.
“We’re trying to mentally and emotionally support the community that’s been hit by this huge tragedy,” said Eang, a board member of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association.
Cambodians account for more than one-fourth of Lowell’s foreign-born population, more than immigrants from any other country, according to data from the US Census Bureau’s 2008-2012 American Community Survey.
About 13,400 people in Lowell, nearly 13 percent of the city’s total population, identify as either born in Cambodia or of Cambodian descent, according to the data.
Vulpillieres said officials at the Cambodian association estimate about 30,000 people in Lowell are of Cambodian descent, but thousands are not counted by official data because they are reluctant to fill out Census forms because of a distrust of government.
She said that by those estimates, Lowell is the second-largest Cambodian community in the country after Long Beach, Calif., which has a Cambodian population of more than 100,000.
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