How people in town have helped a former Merced resident who lost home in Camp Fire
.jpg "Pictured is Rickey Esquivel (center with black sweatshirt) and his family. The family lost their home when it was burned down during the Camp Fire in Paradise.")
TeeJay McDowell was driving to her parents’ house in Merced when she heard about the wildfire in Butte County. McDowell immediately thought of her brother Rickey Esquivel, who lives in Paradise.
“When I got to my parents’ house, I told my dad to call Rickey,” McDowell said.. “I could hear Rickey screaming from the cell phone. Immediately we turned on the news.”
Esquivel and his family had just 30 minutes to evacuate. Esquivel, 63, and Terrie Javid, 55, took two vehicles. Esquivel and his grandson Christian, 15, drove a neighbor’s pickup and Javid, her daughter Sara, 31, and Sara’s daughters Bella, 12, and Hannah, 9, jumped into a family vehicle and navigated their way through the dark, smoke and flames.
“We realized we had to get going because the fire was coming our way like a tunnel,” said Esquivel during an interview with local news station KAEF ABC 23.
During their evacuation, Esquivel stopped to help two elderly neighbors get in their car and evacuate. They also saw two boys running from a burning home and gave them a ride to safety.
Esquivel’s house burned down. The family has relocated to Eureka and are staying with Javid’s daughter Nazy.
“His entire neighborhood is completely flattened, it’s gone,” McDowell said.
Meanwhile, this past week people in Merced have been come together to donate money, clothes, beds and anything they can to help a friend.
“I knew he had nothing,” McDowell said. “I wanted to create something for him so I started a GoFundMe page. It was shared over 400 times. I think people in Merced realized it was Rickey and wanted to help out.”
As of Thursday, the GoFundMe page had generated $3,555 with a goal of $5,000.
Esquivel grew up in Merced. His family has strong Merced roots with his parents Jerry and Kathy Blaylock living in Merced since 1976. Esquivel moved to Paradise 16 years ago.
Cal fire reported Thursday morning that the Camp Fire has burned 140,000 acres — nearly 219 square miles — and is 40 percent contained. More than 52,000 people have been evacuated, 8,756 homes have been destroyed and 15,500 remain threatened.
Longtime family friend Theresa Gonzalez reached out quickly to McDowell after hearing the news and helped spread the word to people in Merced and Le Grand about Rickey.
“I started texting and e-mailing people,” Gonzalez said. “They started donating toiletries and clothes. It was like it personally affected everyone. Some of these people don’t know Rickey and they were still helping.”
People have donated shoes, jackets and even a king size bed and mattress.
“It melts my heart,” McDowell said. “It’s really overwhelming, especially for my parents. They are both in their 80s. My dad is 83 years old and still runs his business. To know that this alleviates a lot of the worry for them. This is what it’s like to be a Mercedian, when tragedy hits, the town comes together.”
If you’d like to donate, the GoFundMe page link is: https://www.gofundme.com/rickeyterriesarahgordon
This story was originally published November 16, 2018 at 12:20 PM.