TURLOCK, Calif. — For Patricia Escalante, caring for her grandchildren is nothing new. But after a tragic apartment fire in Turlock took everything they had, she's trying to stay strong while in very unfamiliar territory.
"It ruined everything destroyed everything. We were lucky to get out alive," said Escalante.
Escalante said she noticed the fire coming from her granddaughter's room and felt the heat radiating off the floor.
"I opened up the door and the flames were just coming on out. And before you know it, it just destroyed everything," she said.
Acting fast, she wasted no time hurrying her two grandchildren out the door to safety. They escaped with nothing but the clothes on their backs, with Escalante even forgetting to grab her own shoes on the way out.
"I thought to myself, don't grab nothing. Just get out because the flame were just coming up out of the wall, and it was happening so fast. And then the black smoke was just coming out, and I just saw the kids. I was yelling get out, get out," said Escalante.
The family ran out of the West Hawkeye apartment they've been calling home for the past three years. Escalante started renting the apartment once she stepped in to take guardianship of her grandchildren. She left her retirement community to make sure she could care for them.
For now, the family is staying at a motel. She said the Red Cross helped them with a room, but the future is still uncertain for now.
"We are so displaced. This is not a home. This is not Quinn and Llily's home. They, they're being resilient," said Escalante.
14-year-old Lilly actually stepped in to help get a fundraiser going on her grandmother's behalf. Escalante said the fundraiser is going toward food, gas and apartment application fees as they try to find a new home.
"I'm 65 years old, and never thought that anything like this would ever happen," she said. "Nothing has ever happened like this before in my life. And all I am worried about is these grandchildren."
While the family wasn't hurt in the fire, they're pet cat was tragically killed. The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Stanislaus County Fire Investigation Unit.
The GoFundMe page for the family is available at this link.
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