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GoFundMe pages are created for the multiple displaced residents, and a fundraising barbecue is planned for Sunday
The Los Alamos community has rallied around residents displaced by last week's two-alarm fire at a mobile home park.
At least four separate GoFundMe pages have been created, and plans for a community fundraiser were being finalized.
“It's just been a huge community effort,” said resident Jen Curtis, one of several people who are spearheading efforts to assist residents left with only the clothes on their backs.
The fire at the Rancho Alamo Trailer Park at 9278 Highway 101 in Los Alamos sparked shortly before 1 p.m. last Thursday. Santa Barbara County firefighters said the incident involved a fully engulfed mobile home, with extension to the nearby brush and threatening other residences.
By the time the fire was extinguished, two homes were destroyed and a third had moderate damage, with eight adults and two children displaced. All of the occupants had escaped before firefighters arrived at the scene.
The vegetation fire also blackened nearly 4 acres. Two firefighters were treated at the scene for heat exhaustion and released.
Firefighters battling the flames encountered a problem with the water source at the scene.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation, Capt. Scott Safechuck said Tuesday.
Learning about the fire, Curtis and others immediately posted on Facebook to get support for the fire victims, initially believed to involve one residence and later expanded to include others.
“People just rallied and said, 'What can I do to help?'" Curtis said.
That has led to plans for a fundraising barbecue scheduled for 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday at the Los Alamos Valley Men's Club, 429 Leslie St., with tickets for adult and children's meals and dessert plates available for purchase by clicking here. Businesses in the small community with fewer than 2,000 residents also have stepped up to provide donations and supply food for the fundraiser.
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Plans also are in the works for an online wine fundraiser.
When one fire victim put out a plea on social media for dog food, a crate and other pet supplies, residents stepped up to fulfill the request.
Curtis said clothes and other immediate supplies have already been gathered for the residents, so gift cards and money are the best ways to help now.
Days after the fire, a meeting to organize efforts drew 10 people eager to help. They've also assigned advocates to each victim to assess the needs.
“I think it's a little frenzied because we had to do things really quick," Curtis said.
GoFundMe pages were started to assist the fire victims. One GoFundMe page, available by clicking here, had raised more than $22,000 as of Tuesday evening for the family of Laura Beas-Diaz, who serves as the community outreach coordinator for The Los Alamos Foundation and has publicized fundraising efforts for other tragedies that affected the community members.
The fire sparked a day after she solicited support from the community for the Summer in the Park program's finale on Friday.
The fire destroyed the home and belongings of her and her family, including her husband, two children and her mom.
A second page to help Kim Kapsh, who escaped with her dog and purse, can be found here and had raised more than $3,800 as of Tuesday evening.
The third site raising funds will help Kristine Valentine and her son, Brian Franco, and it can be found here. It had raised more than $4,000 as of Tuesday evening.
A fourth site, which had raised more than $700 as of Tuesday evening and can be found by clicking here, will benefit Ricardo Aragon, who rented a room in one of the damaged homes.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) . Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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