For the last 40 years, the Helping Hand Mission has tossed a lifeline to anyone needing food, clothes, warmth and a safe place to sleep — a refuge for anyone, anytime, no matter what.
But on Monday morning, the staff picked through the charred remains from a Sunday-morning fire that tore through the roof and destroyed whole rooms full of donated clothing, furniture and toys.
Sylvia Wiggins, the mission’s longtime director, sat on a desk outside the wreckage on the chilly morning-after, where a volunteer wrapped her legs in a blanket…