Fire victims continue to clean up; grateful for community efforts

When Ricky Hannah first went out to look at the Cotton 1 Fire from his home on Las Rosas Dr. SE in Los Lunas, he saw warning signs from the other side of the Rio Grande bosque, just south of Main Street on the afternoon of Saturday, June 21.

“It was smoking a bunch so we didn’t really think too much of it,” he said, “and then the wind came up and caught it with a big gust and it came across the ditch and like that, our place was on fire.”

Hannah said he and his brother and housemate, Joseph Quick, began fighting to keep the fire at bay any way they could.

“We were getting buckets of water and putting out the fences, and they weren’t going out so we chopped them down with axes,” he recalled. “The fire department was on the house next to us spraying and we were spraying and using mud and trying to get everything out.”

The brothers soon heard frantic yelps two doors down from a man who had fallen while battling the flames.

“He was screaming that he needed help,” Hannah said, “so me and my brother ran over there and helped … we did the same thing (as in our yard). We cut the fence and made a blockade. So that didn’t reach their house. Eventually, the fire got too hot for us.”

Hannah and Quick were luckier than their neighbors. They suffered smoke damage while the home next door had severe water damage. The house, two doors down? Gutted by fire.

By the next Friday, Hannah, his girlfriend and their three children were back packing stuff up and then making a run to meet with the American Red Cross and get cleaning supplies.

“We’re gonna try to get those and wash everything out,” he said. “If we can’t get the smoke smell and stuff out, then yeah, we’ll probably end up leaving. I have hazard insurance, but we haven’t heard from them.”

The Dessert Willow Complex Fire came on quickly but its effects will be felt for some time to come.

On Thursday, June 24, Los Lunas Fire Department Chief John Gabaldon reported to the Los Lunas Village Council a final accounting of the damage from the fire — 11 homes destroyed, three with major damage, one with minor damage, and 57 homes affected in some way by the fire and efforts to put it out.

A few doors down on Las Rosas, Conrad Cantu and his friend Josiah Ronquillo are salvaging what they can from the home Cantu shared with his wife, Felicia, and their five children. The house is wrecked but they’ve managed to salvage some stuff.

Cantu said he took time off from work to grab what he could because they’ve already had unburnt valuables taken by people looting the area.

The Cantus had only been at their home for a few months since leaving Belen to be closer to his job at the Walmart Distribution Center in Los Lunas. Cantu was at home with his kids when the fire came rushing into his backyard.

“My wife was at work,” he remembered. “The fire was a couple ways down the bosque. I come back out and the fire was in the back of our yard. Damn. On the other side (of the river) but still in the back.”

Cantu’s reaction was immediate. He and the kids grabbed what they could and then left rather than trying to fight the fire.

“None of that, none of that snapped to my mind at the time,” he said. “It was just me worrying about my kids, you know. Everything else we’d left behind. I just worried about the family.”

Nearly a week later, he and his buddy were busy filling the U-Haul trailer with valuables.

“We’re taking our stuff that’s what barely survived. That’s why I’m here right now, to get it out before they come back and take the stuff that did survive. So it’s really devastating.”

Cantu said his mother died in February. He hasn’t found the container with her ashes, but he did find a pendant of hers he kept to remember her by. He said his mother’s jewel and all the help he’s gotten from the community keep him hopeful while he and his family stay with their wife’s mother.

“We have so much on our mind meeting with people and stuff so we’re very thankful for all the help and that my bosses are working with me on my schedule.”

Tania Valois Rivera, her sister, Sandra, and her parents, Enrique and Lupe Valois Rivera, lived at the corner cul-de-sac of Las Rosas Drive. Tania said the four of them celebrated their birthdays in May. June was not as festive a month for them.

All four were away from home on the Saturday that the Cotton 1 Fire broke out. Tania was the furthest, camping out of town. Her parents showed up soon after. A half a mile away from Carson Drive, they watched the family home, and their vehicles, go up in flames.

“It felt very bad (to see it),” Lupe said in Spanish, with Tania translating. “It was very sad. I saw when the car exploded and the truck exploded … I look now and have lots of memories, and the sacrifices that my husband has made.”

A wave of sorrow passed over her face as she choked up a bit.

“We lost it all in a second,” she said.

Lupe and her family had lived in the home on Las Rosas since 2012 with their two big dogs and a chihuahua. The dogs were saved by Sandra but everything else is gone. The family has received help from many directions, including donations of clothes and a GoFundMe page that is just under $2,000 short of its $14,000 goal.

Tonia said her dad was thinking about retiring from his work laying down asphalt soon, but now that might not be possible.

In the shadow of that dark day, the family emerged into light. They are currently staying at the home of a friend in Peralta and trying to get their lives sorted and moving forward.

“It’s been super overwhelming, you know, just seeing how many people love and support us, you know,” Tania said. “Hopefully, that’s the same situation with our neighbors going on. It’s definitely been overwhelming to have everything taken away.”

She said the family has all had to go back to their day jobs despite the tragedy, but said that being able to work has “been a blessing.”

“You know, we don’t know what life is going to look like in the next nine months,” Tania said. “We’re just taking it day by day, see what life has in store for us. That’s all we can do.”