MIDDLETOWN (KRON) — It has now been six months since the Valley Fire in Middletown.
Four people died in the fire and more than 1,000 homes were destroyed. KRON’s J.R. stone spent the day in Middletown and has more on the recovery efforts.
In Middletown, some homes are being built and some manufactured homes are being brought in. But some is the key word, as many lots are still vacant.
“Six months later, we still have no plans to build…because we haven’t got any process through our insurance company,” fire victim Janet Mondragon said. “They just want us to go away.”
Mondragon’s property is merely an empty lot. She and her family are back at square one, deciding if they should even rebuild.
Four months ago, KRON was in Janet’s neighborhood with Quadcopter 4. Where there was once debris, there are now vacant lots and at least one rebuild underway.
Sandy Negrete, whose nephew shot video as their family evacuated, still remembers the night the Valley Fire destroyed everything.
“The whole house was pitch black,” Negrete said. “Everything was blowing all around like a tornado. I told the dogs we’re going to die because I could already feel all the heat on me.”
Negrete’s property six months after the fire is still showing scars from the fire. And several months after she paid, in full, for two new manufactured homes, no homes have been delivered.
“At least tell me you’re building them. Supposedly, they’re not even starting to build these two homes,” she said.
It is a process that continues to take an emotional toll on everyone.
“It’s a real hard road that we’re taking here that nobody is going to know what we’re going through,” Mondragon said. “The experience of what has occurred. It is–it’s just horrendous.”
KRON talked with county officials who said they are working hard to get through the paperwork so people can get new homes.