Tracy Perez has faced the unthinkable, losing everything she owns twice to fires. A brush fire destroyed her house in 2021.
She said she finally was able to get back up on her feet a little, living in an RV with her two sons behind their burnt home.
Just before 12 a.m. on Wednesday night, Perez received a horrifying call from her sons, who said their RV was going up in flames.
“I couldn't even believe it. I mean, the first one, it was the refrigerators on fire. I didn't think it was that bad. And then he called again and said, the whole RV is engulfed in flames,” Perez said.
Twenty minutes later, her RV, which she calls home, was reduced to ashes on the 4000 block of 14th Avenue Southeast in Golden Gate Estates.
“We lost every single thing. I mean, from our clothes, our goods, my great grandmother's ring, which I pray to God I can find in there. But everything we lost, everything. My 13-year-old son's phone. He just got an Oculus,” Perez said.
Their greatest loss was five cats that were inside the RV as well.
“It just kills me. It got them out of the first house fire for them to die in another fire. It's just so unfair. They're so innocent. And then to die such a brutal death,” Perez said.
Perez and her two sons have to find a new place to call home. Her youngest, a 13-year-old, starts school in two weeks.
“I don't even know what the next step is. He lost all his new school clothes and supplies. He had a pair of your air forces that he absolutely loved,” Perez said.