Pio Pico Elementary had a tragic event strike one of their families on June 27. Two of their students, Alina 12 and Ivan, 10, lost their mother and 4 year old sister in a fire at their small bungalow unit. Additionally, the fire destroyed everything, but literally the clothes on their backs.
Attached at the end of this story is the article from the LA Times which appeared the day after the fire. The school and surrounding community is trying to help this family put their lives back together. Whatever help you, your families and colleagues could offer would make such a difference for them.
Checks can be made payable to Pio Pico Span School PTSA (Parent Teacher Student Assoc.) with Cruz Sánchez on the memo line. 100% of the donations will go directly to the family. There are absolutely no administrative costs involved.
The family still has not been able to secure temporary housing and are looking to arrange for more permanent housing. Alina and Ivan started their new school year yesterday. Both are in class with many friends and have very supportive teachers. It is important that they remain there.
If you know anyone with a rental unit near Pio Pico, please let them know. The permanent housing is classified as affordable, and the family has been guaranteed a unit, due to the tragic circumstances that are detailed below.
Thanks for any assistance you might be able to offer.
PIO PICO SPAN SCHOOL
1512 S. Arlington Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90019
323.733.8801
[email protected]
Here is the article from the LA Times:
Mother and Daughter, 4, Killed in Fire as Rescue Attempts Fail
By Michelle Keller, Times Staff Writer
June 28, 2006
A 34-year-old woman and her 4-year-old daughter died in a fire that gutted their single-story home in the Country Club Park area early Tuesday morning, authorities said.
Fire crews, who arrived before 7:30 a.m., found the bodies of the girl and her mother, identified as Alicia Cruz by family members, in the bedroom of their bungalow-style home. Firefighters put out the blaze by 7:43 a.m., said Brian Ballton, spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Most of the house, on the 1300 block of 2nd Avenue, was destroyed, with the kitchen the most extensively damaged, fire Capt. Carlos Calvillo said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, authorities said.
Cruz had moved into the house, in a neighborhood west of downtown, a few months ago with her three children and their father, said Gladys Gomez, 42, a neighbor.
On Tuesday, the father had already left the house to take the two older children to school and then head to work, Calvillo said.
The two older children were with relatives after the fire.
Neighbors smelled smoke around 7 a.m. and several called the Fire Department.
Richard Figueroa, 21, saw the fire as he was driving by and was told there was a child trapped inside. Figueroa, a Marine, shattered a window with his arm to attempt to rescue the victims, according to Calvillo. He was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.
San Diego resident Jose Umama, 27, also a Marine, was visiting friends next door and was awakened by shouts that the neighboring unit was on fire.
The two Marines pulled the iron bars from another window, but did not find anyone in the room they entered. Umama said he took off his shirt, covered his face, crawled into the living room through the front door and made it a few feet before turning around.
"We did our best," Umama said, his head dropping as he stood on the porch of his friends' house.
Ashes and bits and pieces of the family's life were all that remained. A child's math notes, charred clothing and remnants of kitchen supplies lay scattered in the blackened home.
Cruz "was very kind, very considerate," said Refugio Garcia, 39, who identified herself as the woman's cousin. She pushed back tears. "We used to play together in our little town in Oaxaca," Garcia said in Spanish. "She was very caring," she said. "She cared very much about her children."
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http://www.bookpals.net/content/article.php?story=20060707194848855