Fire destroys home, displaces family in Fresno County
The displaced residents now plan to stay with family.
FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Rhonda Murphy received a frantic call from her mother Rose around 4:30 Friday morning.
"My mom was screaming, It's on fire! It's on fire!'"
Murphy rushed to her childhood home near Kingsburg, where her parents Rose and Ernie Martinez lived.
When she arrived, the house was already destroyed by the blaze.
"She had already grabbed the dog, grabbed my dad," Rhonda said. "She said he sleeps like a rock. She said they could see it right there in the bedroom wall."
Investigators say the fire started at the back of the house.
Her father, Ernie, tried to put out the flames with a hose but the fire quickly spread.
The family is thankful Ernie is expected to be okay but is devastated that the ranch house and everything inside is gone.
"I just feel so bad for my parents because they've worked hard their whole life," Rhonda said.
Murphy says her grandfather and uncle built the home that she and her five siblings grew up in.
"It just breaks my heart, I'm just devastated," she said.
Loved ones have started a GoFundMe account to support her parents in the wake of this devastating fire.
