JACUMBA, Calif. (KGTV) – All that remains at Linda Churchill’s home in Jacumba is singed sections of pages, torched pieces of timber, and plenty of ash. It’s the heartbreaking loss of losing your home.
“It was an awful thing. You know, I mean, everything I owned was toast within such a short period of time,” Churchill, whose home was destroyed by a fire, said.
Churchill - a painter and muralist – told ABC10News she was painting in her living room, which is also her studio, nearly two weeks ago on May 21. She said she heard a strange noise and went to her front door.
“The smoke was coming from that direction, and I ran to the front yard, and it was already going up into the trees,” Churchill said.
Churchill didn’t have cell phone service. So, she grabbed her phone and laptop, drove to her neighbor up the hill, got a signal and called 911.
“Within an hour and 15 minutes, it was like bomb. It was completely flattened,” Churchill said.
The fire took dozens of her paintings, a collection of her friends’ artwork and decades’ worth of sketchbooks.
Adding fiery insult to injury, Churchill lost some four-legged friends in the fire.
“You know, and I regret I didn’t go upstairs and save my dog. My dog is my companion. I have to live with that,” Churchilll said. “I had three kitties. Two of them have been discovered, and the third I don’t know yet.”
As Linda works to get her ID, passport and much more back, her close friend Doreen Cruz is putting the call out to the community to help her friend who’s lost everything.
“People want to help. And one way to do that was to set up the Fire On The Mountain Linda Churchill GoFundMe,” Cruz said.
Cruz said the outpour of support for her long-time friend has been extremely generous.
“For a woman who is an independent artist, has worked all her life doing that,” Cruz said. “Every time they might walk by one of her murals, they’re getting a smile or a piece of joy and this is the woman who did that work.”
A woman grateful for all of the support she's getting and looking to rise from the ashes.
“The thing recently is everybody that I see, ‘Linda, we love you. I love you. I love you,’ and I believe it,” Churchill said.
