Dinuba family loses everything in destructive apartment fire

The fire displaced 25 people, including the Sanchez family.
Sunday, August 11, 2024
TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Through tears, Jacquelyn Sanchez shares how everything her 13-year-old daughter loved is now gone.

"She had a lot of things in her room that she loves. She had her room all decorated the way she loved it, but it's just gone overnight," said Sanchez.

Video shows their apartment after a fire destroyed everything they owned on Monday night.

The Dinuba Fire Department estimated the property damage at roughly $600,000. The fire displaced 25 people, including the Sanchez family.

When fire crews arrived, flames were seen on the balcony of a second level apartment. The fire department said the blaze spread to the next apartment over, which was the Sanchez family's home.



"It's not something you ever expect to happen to you. You always see this happen to families on the news and you feel so bad for them, you know, it's so hard having it happen to you," said Sanchez.

Sanchez said she was able to grab her purse because she saw it on the way out the door, but everything else, including their dear cat Felix, was left behind.

"It happened two days before my daughter was supposed to start school, so all of our shopping was done. We had her new clothes, her new shoes, so she didn't grab any of that, we weren't able to get any of that, everything was lost, all her clothes, her glasses, too, she had new glasses to start the school year and so now she started school with no glasses," said Sanchez.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. As Sanchez and her husband Abraham try to rebuild their life, she says she's grateful everyone in her family was able to make it out alive.

Sanchez, her husband, and their two kids are now staying with family. And its family that set up a donation page to help the family during this unimaginable loss.

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