"I mean, look at the destruction, all of the buildings that were lost, all of the artwork that was lost and now they want to say it's not their fault," said Kara Hitchcock, an attorney who filed suit on behalf of one of the affected families. "It's just not right."
Three lawsuits now demand payment from Clovis Unified and Housley Demolition for damages caused in the fire last June.
Within an hour of their attack on this wildfire, investigators knew how it happened. Their reports say a contractor knocking down trees on the future Clovis Unified school site sparked it, and was still nearby when firefighters arrived.
As the fire spread across 108 acres, it wiped out almost everything on Betty Jo Giocalone's property. The land was her father-in-law's life work, destroyed a year after his death.
"Everything he did is gone," she said. "Everything he built for his four sons and his grandkids is gone."
Everything but the house, which firefighters saved. Her husband, Peter Giocalone, recorded the fire, watching helplessly as the flames destroyed decades worth of family history.
"Looks like the barn's burning," he said as the camera rolled.
All that's left of it now is a lot of dirt and a few burned-out relics of what once was that barn.
"Having that all just gone out of someone's carelessness is almost more than I can bear some days," said Betty Jo Giocalone.
A trailer, a horse pen, and a workshop all disintegrated, and the fire peeled the paint on the green garage. But even as the flames destroyed so much, one sculpture stood strong.
St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost items, refused to crumble -- one last reminder of former beauty on the long walk from the home to the fields on the other side of 27 acres.
"There were days you sat there and said 'I don't think I can make this walk one more time' -- coming back and forth to get something or do something -- and it's like, I miss that walk," Betty Jo said. "I really do."
The walk and other lost items can never be fully restored, but the buildings can be. The Giocalones just need the money to do it. But more than a year later, in court documents filed this week, attorneys for Housley Demolition claim their employee didn't start the fire. Our calls to Housley were not returned, and a Clovis Unified spokesperson told Action News the district typically doesn't comment on pending lawsuits.