Single mother and two sons narrowly escape fire that burned down their home

A single mother and her two boys are out of a home after a fire destroyed most of their home Sunday morning in Indio.

“My kids, my kids. I wanted to get them out.”

Those were Maritza Cota’s first thoughts when she saw her sons’ room in flames.

“He said mom, mom there’s a fire. And I woke up scared and I woke up scared and I ran to the kitchen to go see what was going on that’s when I seen the big flames and grabbed them.”

Cota said she grabbed her sons and immediately went to her room to escape through the back window to get away from the flames.

“When I went across to look at it, the whole thing was on fire. I was just like yelling because I was so scared for them. I didn’t know the extent, I just knew that it was on fire,” Cota explained.

The blaze occurred at around 3:30 a.m. at a home on King Street in Indio. A Cal Fire spokesperson said the blaze initially started as a tree fire, before spreading into the nearby building.

“We had a barbecue grill here, a sofa, my washer and dryer. And you know, uhm if you stepped in here," she described.

Cota said her and her sons will be put in a motel by the red cross for a few days, but she doesn’t know where they’ll go from there.

“My whole house is gone. Like everything is gone. You know, I worked hard for everything and from one day, you know, from the night to the morning. It’s gone now.”

As a single mother with a full time job, Cota said she’s worried about how she can recover from this while providing for her kids.

“I don’t know how to start. I don’t know how to face that for my boys. You know, how we’re gonna start and from where you know.”

After losing almost everything, Cota said she is grateful that no one was hurt.

“I’m very thankful that we’re safe, that I was able to get them out," said Cota, "And we call got out safe.”

A GoFundMe page has been set-up to support the family. Click here to visit that page