SURPRISE, Ariz. — A Valley family has been forced to start all over again, for the second time, after a house fire destroyed everything they own.
Andrea Dimao, her two children, both of her parents, and their pets had been renting a home near Greenway Road and Bullard Avenue when a fire broke out in their attic Tuesday night.
“I got a phone call that I needed to come home because my daughter came home, and smoke was billowing out of the roof,” Dimao told 12News on Wednesday.
When Dimao arrived at her home, fire trucks were already on the scene. Surprise Fire-Medical Department responded around 10 p.m.
“I pull up… and my dad is in his wheelchair, and my mom just got over breast cancer, and [we were] just watching our lives burn and not crying,” she said.
Dimao’s son, Dominic, and both of her parents were home when the fire started. The smoke alarms alerted them to the blaze.
Dominic immediately ran to check on both of his grandparents to see if they were okay before he went to his mother’s room, where the smoke was coming from.
“I walk in… and a cloud of [smoke] smacks me in my face,” Dominic said. “So, I ran back out, and I was like ‘fire.”
Dominic got his grandparents to safety and went outside, grabbed a hose, and attempted to put out the fire himself. He said he was “more worried about the house” than himself.
But inside the home were also their Dobermans’ newborn puppies. He was trying to save them too, but three did not make it. Dominic had to be hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
The inside of the home was left unrecognizable. The roof caved in, and it ended in the ground charred. Where there was once a ceiling is now a clear view of the sky.
This is the second time the family has lost everything in a fire.
“So, the first time our house caught on fire was right after COVID, and we just moved back in exactly a year ago on Nov. 1st,” Dimao said. “Now, we don’t have anywhere to live.”
That first time a candle was left on accidentally by her father was to blame. This time they believe it was “faulty wiring,” she said.
The fire department said they suspect the vent fan as a possible cause for the fire, but will likely rule the cause to be undetermined.
Despite the loss, Dimao is thankful her family survived.
“I’ve done it before. I’ll do it again,” she said, fighting back tears.
As the family waits for their renter’s insurance to get sorted out, they are staying at a hotel. They have created a GoFundMe to help them get back on their feet.
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