It’s been almost one week since the Coches fire tore through a neighborhood in Lakeside, injuring two people, destroying six homes, and damaging three others.
“Still in shock and grief. It’s upsetting, very extremely to lose your home. It was very nurturing to me,” Sharon Martin said.
Sharon Martin is trying to get her life together after losing everything in the Coches fire.
Martin said a Eucalyptus tree caught fire and exploded down the road, sparking embers that eventually ignited her home.
“Just kind of panicked oh my goodness. What’s going on? Ran outside to grab the hose and see if I could put something out,” Martin said.
The fire didn’t just take her home; it also destroyed belongings that meant the world to her.
“I lost a daughter many years ago and she was a painter, so I had a lot of her paintings hanging on the wall, and it reminded me so much of her, and that was a big loss,” Sharon Martin said.
Today Sharon stopped by the recovery and resources event the county and volunteers put on to help fire victims like her recover from the disaster.
“The red cross was very, very helpful, they met with us, me and another woman at the park, they gave us great information and were able to provide temporary housing for 28 days at an Airbnb, and so yeah, I’m staying at a motel six right now, and that was very helpful,” Martin said.
Sharon and other fire victims got information about inspections, permits to rebuild, self-sufficiency programs, and vital records.
“We are helping individuals who are fire victims, whether they have lost their property, or whether they have lost access to their vital documents, if you’re property from a fire, you may qualify for a property tax reduction in a temporary manner and we’re happy to help with that,” Martin Arias with the San Diego County Assessor’s Office said.
“I know there’s high stress and anxiety level to the loss of a home, but they can reach out to us as a local fire resource, if they need to and we can help guidance them through part of the process or even help them find the right contact,” Davis said.
The resources also offered services to print out vital documents on-site that may have been lost or damaged during the fire.
“It’s very reassuring and helpful, that it calms down the stress, that there are people to reach out to meet with them and to talk with them, and to ask them questions, rather than just emails and texts,” Martins said.
Sharon said after living through this experience, she wants others to take the importance of being fire-ready seriously, like having a go-bag.
“It is very important. It happens very quickly, and you want to have that grab back that they keep talking about, medications, I lost my medications, I had to go to the pharmacy and have them replaced,” Sharon said.