If you follow the news you've been hearing a whole lot about the California Wildfires. But as we told you on Friday, most of them did not happen in areas known to be heavily populated by Belizeans. But, the fire in Eaton did totally devastate ONE Belizean-American mother OF two. Here's her story.
The Eaton fire in California destroyed the home that transplanted Benquena Araceli Mendez and her children called home.
She says she saw the fire but it seemed like an impossible distance away:
Anaceli Mendez, Fire Victim
"Behind the house we could have seen it, but I said it would 10-15 minutes' drive to get to them. It's far and there is no way in hell that fire could run all the way down here. I don't think that the fire fighters would have allowed the houses to catch fire. But anyways we pack a little overnight outfit for the next day and I told my son don't pack a lot, because we will come back tomorrow morning."
But when she got into the car she realized that tomorrow morning might never come:
Anaceli Mendez, Fire Victim
"We are driving and about 60-80 miles per hour winds like hurricane, no rain, just wind lashing on the car. You see the fire. It's like the gates of hell opened up."
Opened up and swallowed her home.
Anaceli Mendez, Fire Victim
"I lived on a property that had 3 houses and all 3 houses went down - all 3 families we pack just an overnight. Everything gone. We weren't ready for this. We didn't think this would have happened."
The scale of ruin still boggles Mendez:
Anaceli Mendez, Fire Victim
"The school burnt down. We were watching the videos and we couldn't believe it. We were like there is no way that the school burnt down. The school has to be protected. The school went and the houses went down."
"I got notification that the fire was a block away from my house - that's it."
And now - she hasn't even been able to go back to sift through the charred remains:
Anaceli Mendez, Fire Victim
"As you can see here, they still have everything locked up. They have the national guard. We can't go up. We can't even have that last closure. All I want to do is go up and see maybe pictures survived, you know, anything."
"I lost my dad one year ago and to think that it's like I lost him all over again, but this time for good, because I don't have pictures, I don't have nothing. (Sigh)"
So much loss, so much regret - but also the recognition that it could have been so much worse:.
Anaceli Mendez, Fire Victim
"We were going to sleep on the couch. Had no idea that we were looking to wake up in heaven of we have fallen asleep. If my neighbour hadn't come to look for us knocking on our door, I wouldn't be telling you this story right now."
Anaceli's co-workers have opened up a Gofundme to help her get back on her feet. You can find a link to it on our website.
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