(KGTV) — Karen Grube has lived at the Manzanita apartments in Escondido for more than a decade until a fire ripped through multiple units back in October 2024.
"You can see the blackened area from where the fire happened,” Grube shows me. "I don't think they’re ever going to be able to repair this. ”
She’s walking me outside what used to be her unit before that fire changed everything for her and 22 others.
Back in October, ABC 10News shared the stories of residents and what they lost in a fire. But now, roughly seven month later, Grube tells me the fight to get back to a sense of normal continues. Fences, gates, yellow tape still up to keep neighbors out from the area.
For many of them it's been a hard journey where they've had to call a motel room 'home,' which includes Grube.
"It got so expensive living there, which means I was having to buy food on iIstacart nearly every day or, you know, drive over and get fast food nearly every day, and that's a lot more expensive," she says.
Grube tells me she soley relies on social security. So between moving expenses, insurance claims, and everything in between, months later she's finally getting settled into a new unit at Manzanita. Moving what she has left from the fire into her new unit.
“It was a total disaster trying to walk in and find things that I could take over to the new apartment.”
Despite help some from management to help ease the hassle for her and other neighbors, she tells me the long road continues for it to feel like home again.
“Right now, I'm working with them to make sure that they live up to their obligation of finding a um a reasonable accommodation for me," she says. "So that's a good start I think."
