ESCONDIDO, Calif. (KGTV)— It's a long road to normalcy for the Tapia family, who lost nearly everything when a fire ripped through their unit in the Manzanita Apartments. They've been in two separate motel and hotel rooms this week and have been trying to pick up the pieces to move forward.
"It's been pretty rough," says 13-year-old Christian Tapia. "I'm not going to school this week because everything's been complicated."
Tapia now calls a hotel room 'home' despite it being nearly a week since a fire took most of his belongings and even his two pet parakeets. He's missed classes to be there for his family, who all lean on one another to get through this tragedy.
"I can see my mom and dad really stressed out, and they could barely get enough sleep and they were all sorting stuff," Tapia said.
ABC 10News was on the scene last Friday when their home went up in flames, taking everything in its path. And for the more than 20 people displaced, just remnants of what used to be their home remain- plywood over where doors and windows used to be, melted satellite dishes, and things that used to serve a purpose just burnt to a crisp.
"We lost everything -- nothing, like our all stuff were all smoked up, and nothing was really saved," Tapia told ABC 10News.
The Tapia family says they have received a lot of help from the Red Cross, their own apartment, family and even strangers who have reached out to help them. The family has set up a GoFundMe, which has already raised more than $2,000.
"It means the world to us because we basically have nothing except each other."
All the while, they look ahead to not only pick up the pieces but rebuild from the bottom up.
"The most difficult part is that I've been in that apartment for almost my whole life and just seeing it," he says. "And I won't have the chance to stay another night there -- that's really painful to me."
It includes the pain of not knowing what the future holds for their family.
"We're gonna stay here until, I'm pretty sure, the end of the month, and we don't know where we're going to go after that month," Tapia said.
