Good Samaritan Pays for 70 Hotel Rooms for Chicago Homeless During Dangerous Polar Vortex

An anonymous Good Samaritan elected to pay for 70 hotel rooms for those in need amid freezing temperatures after a homeless camp in Chicago was forced to clear out

As the polar vortex blasts on, one act of kindness is warming hearts.

An anonymous Good Samaritan elected to pay for 70 hotel rooms for those in need after a homeless camp in Chicago was forced to be clear out due to a fire, CNN reported.

The camp was an empty lot lined with close to a dozen tents and makeshift housing from blankets, many of them heated with propane tanks donated by locals, according to the Chicago Tribune. On Wednesday afternoon, one tank exploded because it was too close to a space heater, causing the fire, CNN reported.

No one was injured, according to the Tribune, but authorities responding to the call confiscated about 100 tanks across the area because of the safety risk. Meanwhile, temperatures in the area dipped to -50 degrees with the windchill, the outlet reported.

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“When we got there, the fire was extinguished and they found all these propane cylinders,” Fire Chief Walter Schroeder told the Tribune, adding that he issued a hazardous material alert.

“There was a significant amount of propane there,” he continued. “And with that many cylinders, that’s like a bomb going off.”

City officials were going to move those in need to a Salvation Army center when the anonymous donor offered to pay for a hotel on the South Side for all of those displaced for the rest of the week.

“Isn’t that wonderful?” Jacqueline Rachev, a spokeswoman for the Salvation Army, told the Tribune. “At least they’re warm and they’re safe.”

Rachev added to CNN, “We know Chicagoans have very big hearts, but we ask that they do not provide propane tanks, as they are very dangerous.”