As the investigation continues into what caused yesterday’s fire at Ashley Court Apartments, one man who lost everything is left to pick up the pieces after his home and car burned to ashes.
Early Thursday morning Maurice Escalante woke up to his worst nightmare.
“I was was asleep and and I hear an explosion, it happened so fast I didn’t know what was going on,” said Escalante.
Escalante says he ran outside to see flames and his car below already on fire.
The first thing that went through his mind was saving his family.
“The only thing going through my mind were my nieces, my brother,” said Escalante.
Escalante was able to get out safely with his two nieces, both under four, and brother. Escalante and his family were left to watch everything they had burn.
“I tried to save something but the fire was so fast, I tried to move my car and I can’t, I can’t do it,” said Escalante.
Escalante and his family didn’t have insurance at the time of the fire.
What used to be left to sink in for Escalante Friday as he looked out at his former home from his temporary one, just across the street at his cousin’s apartment, also in Ashley Court Apartments.
But he says, it helps to fix his gaze on something else.
“I don’t worry about my clothes and my stuff, I worry about my life and taking care of my family,” said Escalante.
With some help from the Red Cross, Escalante says hes seeking out to do the only thing he knows how to do, keep going.
Escalante says,”I believe in god you know, I just got to, I’ve been thinking of that all the time, so I keep going.”
