Welcome Home Angel looks to rebuild after fire damages offices
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A Wilmington-based non-profit known for building new rooms for kids with disabilities will have to begin rebuilding its own offices after a fire broke out last Thursday, January 29th.
“We’re hoping that it doesn’t delay our projects, but the reality is, um, it might.”
That’s the worry, Welcome Home Angels executive director Craig Wagner has following a fire at the organization’s offices located on Wrightsville Avenue.
An HVAC unit on top of the building caught fire, and to deal with it, firefighters had to cut into the roof.
“There was just significant smoke and water damage, um, as you would expect from a fire,” Wagner said. “And it has completely, um, displaced us. Uh, we also sublet several offices in our unit to reduce our operating costs, so those small businesses have been displaced too.”
Since its founding 18 years ago, Welcome Home Angel has done more than 80 projects to customize homes for kids with health care needs, most recently helping a teenager with autism named Manni become more independent.
Wagner said he’s glad no one was hurt by the fire, but added that this will have a lasting impact on them.
“It has this domino effect of, one, not having a physical space where we’re, you know, in proximity to each other and collaborating, um, but, um, receiving materials and furniture and supplies and, um, those donations, it just, it just continues to have this snowball effect of, of inefficiencies and kind of, um, displacing our operations.”
And another challenge they have is preparing a brunch held in March that is the largest fundraiser of the year for the organization.
Wagner hopes this fire doesn’t impact what they already have planned for 2026.
“We have a very full pipeline for 2026. We have about 12 families already in queue, um, in addition to some other mission expansion, uh, planning that we’re doing right now. So, it’s a really critical year for us, and we’re hoping this doesn’t delay us too much.”
Wagner said any help from the community is much appreciated.
