Displaced families of mobile home fire choose new housing amenities, given $500 gift cards

INDIO, Calif. - On Saturday 3 families who lost their homes to a fire gathered to learn they were receiving more help from the community. Indio Mayor Glenn Miller presented them with choices of how they would like their new donated homes designed.

A fire erupted on the afternoon of September 30, inside one home at Pueblo Del Sol Mobile Home Park in Indio. It quickly spread to two surrounding homes, and destroyed 2 vehicles.

"I didn’t leave that spot until almost midnight that day," fire victim, Monica Tessandore said.

Tessandore lived at the home with her husband and 3 of her kids. She said she got the call while at work that day.

"As I’m driving through the parking lot of my job site, I saw the fire and as I’m seeing the smoke get blacker and blacker, I know it’s bad. I know I've lost everything," said Tessandore.

Since then it's been a roller coaster of emotions for her, and the two other families.

"First thing, I was thinking of my kids, that they were safe and I was thanking God for that. When I saw my place and that it was gone, I was depressed, I cried a lot. It was a hard time for us. Right now we’re going through it," said victim, Imelda Ojeda.

In the time of tragedy, the community has rallied behind the families by donating clothes, shoes and money.

The 29 Palms Band of Mission Indians announced in early October that they planned to purchase new mobile homes for the families. On Saturday Mayor Miller returned to the park to present them with more good news.

"I have diagrams of their new mobile homes and I'm going to ask them what kind of amenities they want inside so we can get them ordered as soon as possible. And then the tribal chairman dropped off three $500 gift cards for the families so they were able to get any necessities they need in the meantime," Mayor Miller said.

Mayor Miller handed each family a Walmart gift card.

The site where the mobile homes burned down has been blocked off, and rubble remains on the other side of the fence. The space will once again have homes in place of what was destroyed.

"Wow, it’s something that we can’t believe. We still can’t believe it," said Ojeda.

The families were presented diagrams, where they got to choose different designs and what flooring they preferred.

"It’s confusing because you lost everything in the blink of an eye. Today we got 3 different houses to choose from. We got 3 different layouts to choose from. You got carpet, tile, how do you want your kitchen? It’s like 'Wow!' it’s amazing, it’s a blessing," said Tessandore.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. Daughter of Imelda Ojeda, Yanessa Bautista, 16, suffered third degree burns to her feet. She has been in a wheel chair recovering. Her mother told News Channel 3 that her bandages are expected to come off in the coming days.

"We have the opportunity to do what we need to do as long as we’re watching for everybody else and this gives us the opportunity to help other people, and realize, yeah we have a problem but that doesn’t mean we can't make the world a better place to live," said Mayor Miller.

Each family is now facing their own challenges, but they remain grateful to the outpouring of the community during some of their most difficult days.

"These are people that don’t even know me, don’t know our lives, don’t know nothing, don’t owe us anything,  but have come out to help us and it’s amazing," said Tessandore.

These are people that don’t even know me, don’t know our lives, don’t know nothing, don’t owe us anything  but have come out to help us and it’s amazing.

Mayor Miller said they expect to submit orders for the mobile homes on Monday. They hope to have the homes ready within 30 days of then.

If you'd like to help, one of the families has set up a GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/25kkbwvqyo?sharetype=teams&member=5899536&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&rcid=5b93ee8874234720aae5ae3bf03b51c8

News Channel 3 is working to obtain the remaining GoFundMe pages for the other 2 families.