NEW YORK — Kwame Kissi, 53, considers himself to be a lucky man. Since coming to the U.S. from Ghana in 2003, the husband and father of two has worked as a doorman at several New York City residential buildings.

Four years ago, the management company Kissi still works for placed him at the Sessanta apartments on the Upper West Side.

“I work at different buildings but this building is different. It means a lot. They have good people, people who have a heart, they care about other people,” said Kissi of tenants in the building.

Kissi himself can be described a giving person as well.

Even after New York City became his new home, Kissi has made it a point to regularly send donations back to an orphanage in West Africa.

While Kissi doesn’t seek any recognition for his charity work, he also felt strange about asking for help during his time of need.

“I call 911 and I went downstairs with my boxer shorts. Everything was burned off, everything is burned,” Kissi said of the apartment fire that gutted his 19th floor unit earlier this month.

No one was seriously injured in the Bronx blaze but by the time firefighters had extinguished the flames everything in his apartment had been destroyed.

Among the items that were destroyed was a large cardboard box full of donations that Kissi was about to ship overseas.

Kissi, his wife, and two adult children have been staying with friends since the fire and told few others of his plight.

“I dont want to bring my problem to the tenants because it's not their problem. We just work together I don’t have to bring my problems,” Kissi said.

Kissi returned to work only a day after the blaze and only told a few coworkers what happened to explain his absence the previous day.  

They, in turn, told some of the building’s tenants who wanted to help.

Several tenants who have contributed to helping Kissi financially said that he’s more than just a door man.

“I couldn’t believe something like this would happen to someone I know,” said Jill Akman, a tenant in the building where Kissi works.

“We created a little flyer just telling people what had happened and to know if they wanted to donate they could drop something off at the front desk,” said Kristin Mleczko, another tenant in the building.

Additional tenants from the building, both current and former, jumped into action by providing him with some private donations.

“It made me feel like crying. Like, it was so amazing. These people show love, they make me feel like home,” Kissi said of their generosity.  

Two of the building’s tenants have now set up GoFundMe page in the hopes that other New Yorker’s will want to contribute.

Kissi said he is so grateful for their assistance.

He believes that he’s being helped now because of his work, over the years, helping others in need of charity.