For Zeke Lopez, it still hasn’t completely set in that his home
of the past 18 years is gone. His house received extensive fire
damage Sunday morning, as a garage fire burned through a large
portion of his house. The fire displaced Lopez’s family of five and
two visitors.
For Zeke Lopez, it still hasn’t completely set in that his home of the past 18 years is gone.
His house received extensive fire damage Sunday morning, as a garage fire burned through a large portion of his house. The fire displaced Lopez’s family of five and two visitors.
The blaze on Gonzalez Drive, which the fire department believes started because the clothes dryer’s lint had not been cleaned out, destroyed the garage and seeped into the living area and kitchen, Fire Chief Fred Cheshire said.
Lopez, though, said his insurance investigator assured him it wasn’t the dryer that started the fire. According to the investigator, the fire started around the dryer, but the dryer didn’t receive extensive damage and would have been melted, Lopez said.
It took firefighters nearly 40 minutes to quell the 5:45 a.m. blaze, and the fire department stayed on scene until nearly 11 a.m., Cheshire said.
Since the fire, Lopez and his family have been searching for a new home – even if it’s temporary. With help from the local branch of the American Red Cross, the Lopez family has stayed at a local hotel – and their last day there was Wednesday.
But moving on has been hard, Lopez said.
All of their clothes smell of smoke and all of their possessions are ruined.
“Everything we owned is gone,” Lopez said. “It’s hard because it’s your whole life down the drain – but we have our moments.”
Neighbors and family members have already started helping, searching for a new home and giving clothes and food.
To help raise more money for his family, Lopez will host a garage sale of sorts at the Lopez-owned Bulldog Boxing Gym on Saturday starting at 8 a.m.
He is asking for donations or items to be sold. Bulldog Boxing Gym is located at the corner of McCray and Gibbs streets in Hollister.
Some simple things are still missing. Lopez’s wife still doesn’t have any shoes, and hotel life has already been stretched.
“We just want to get out of the hotel – you know?” Lopez said. “We don’t want to stay here for too long.”
But the family’s emotional state is okay, he said.
“We are trying to make the best of it,” Lopez said.
There is one glimmer of hope for the Lopez family – they all survived fully healthy, including Lopez’s seven-month-old grandson.
“Thank God he is okay,” Lopez said.
Lopez can’t help reliving Sunday morning.
He was woken suddenly by his wife who complained of smoke bellowing throughout the house, Lopez said. Quickly waking everyone up, his family ran outside.
After everyone was safe and 911 was dialed, Lopez returned to the house to find the origins of the fire and help fight it, he said.
He found smoke but not the fire.
Eventually, he touched the garage door and it was burning.
“Right then I knew it was the garage, but I couldn’t get in there,” he said. “We locked the garage door.”
Instead, Lopez and his family were left waiting for the fire department to make their way to the house – which Lopez said “took a long time.”
“It was unreal,” he said. “We waited, and three cops showed up before the fire department and when they did show up, they took their time.”
Lopez also called into question the fire department’s proclamation that it was the dryer that started the fire.
“The dryer was off, so it doesn’t make any sense,” he said.
Lopez believes it was an electrical problem because the power was out when the family originally noticed the fire.
“Why else would the power be out?” Lopez said.
Earlier in the week, Cheshire was clear that the fire started from an abundance of lint in the dryer.
“It looks like it was a cleaning issue with the dryer’s vents,” Cheshire said.
