Lucky to be alive
By William Lundquist - Argus Observer
Tuesday, October 2, 2007 12:19 PM PDT
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| Carlos Cuevas inspects the ruins of his historic Nyssa home Monday afternoon.Cuevas’ family lost nearly everything in the blaze but escaped the flames unharmed. |
Nyssa - Monday afternoon Carlos Cuevas surveyed the debris of his once beautiful Nyssa home.
A Sunday morning fire took everything from Cuevas and his family, except one thing — their lives.
“You can always rebuild again, but you can’t rebuild a life,” he said.
Despite the destruction and regardless of a lack of fire insurance, Cuevas, who bought the historic 1920s home when he moved his family back to the place of his birth, tried to remain philosophical about the disaster.
“Everything happens for a reason,” he said.
Now, though, Cuevas and his wife, Guadalupe, may be homeless for the foreseeable future.
Cuevas said he was at work when the fire broke out.
Guadalupe owes her life to their son Santos, who was awakened by the sound of falling timbers just in time to get his mother and other family members out the front door. Nothing could be saved, including Guadalupe’s collection of sewing machines and other antiques.
“We’re grateful nobody was hurt, but we’re emotionally devastated. Mom always said the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,” Cuevas’ daughter, Eloisa Martinez, said.
She and other family members set up the Carlos and Guadalupe Help Fund at the Ontario branch of Wells Fargo bank to help her now homeless parents and brother, and she is seeking donations and help of any kind.
The first to respond to their plight was Carlos’ employer, Wal-Mart, which provided the Cuevas’ with clothes, hygienic supplies and prescription medicines from the Ontario store.
“Wal-Mart really helped me a lot,” he said.
He said, though, he is going to need a lot more help, since he is still paying $500 a month for a breast cancer operation that saved his wife’s life 15 years ago.
The cause of the fire is as yet unknown, but the Cuevas’ believe it started in a small unoccupied house behind the main structure, burned along the timbers of the breezeway linking the two, then burned through the back door and into the main house. Had Santos Cuevas not awakened when he did, the flames would have soon engulfed the stairway, cutting the family off from escape.
“There could have been loss of life real easily,” said Nyssa Police Chief Lennie Elfering.
Family members said the Nyssa Fire Department responded quickly, but the brick walls and new metal roof combined to turn the structure into a massive pottery kiln.
“Everything in the house was glowing inside,” Carlos Cuevas said.
A television set 15 feet from the house melted from the heat. The fire department could do little but keep the flames from spreading to neighboring homes. Fueling the fire and adding to the loss were a car and items set up in the breezeway for a garage sale.
Carlos Cuevas said the house was one of the first in Nyssa. He said it once housed railroad workers, and then served as a midwife hospital.
“A lot of history went up there,” he said. Santos Cuevas said he and his family were migrant workers in Texas 20 years ago when his father took them to Nyssa to show them where he had been born. Family members decided to reestablish their roots there and they all chipped in to buy the historic house on North First Street. Carlos Cuevas said he worked at the sugar plant until it closed.
Pround Union Member wrote on Jun 30, 2009 9:32 PM:
What happened above is why Walmart deserves to be unionized.
Is why every democrat in this country should boycott Walmart a Republican leaning company "