SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Heat woke Marissa Marez up in the dark hours of the night on Dec. 11. As smoke filled every crevice of her north Sacramento home, she said that she realized there was nothing she could do.
"So from then on, all my brain was telling me was that I needed to get my family out," Marez said.
The fire was coming from the bathroom, which was located right next to the kids’ room.
"My kids were sleeping, and I start shaking them," she said. "''Get up, get up, there's a fire, there's a fire.' And my kids woke up immediately."
"But my youngest son was in the corner, and by this time, stuff had started falling," she said.
The fire quickly consumed the apartment and burned the family's clothing and hair. But they managed to get all the kids out.
"Our dogs weren't barking, and so I didn't think about them," Marez said. "I didn't think 'oh my gosh, I got to get them out too'."
"Everything happened so fast, and it wasn't until the fire department found my bigger dog in the rubble, and everything, that we knew that they had passed away," she added.
Family loses two dogs and home in early-morning fire
The family is now motel hopping.
“We're pretty much going from hotel to hotel, which is very expensive, and we are running out of funds, and it's just, you never think you're going to be homeless on Christmas,” Marez said.
Everything that they need to help find a new place such as IDs, insurance cards, marriage certificates and more is all gone.
The family has set up a GoFundMe as they try to rebuild their lives. You can find it by clicking HERE.
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