SANTA NELLA, Calif. (KMJ/KFSN) — People living in a small Merced County community went without power for over 5 months after a fire ripped through several mobile homes this past summer. Just days ago, after multiple setbacks, power was restored thanks to a collaborative effort by multiple agencies.
“The flame was so big so tall and wide. I thought the whole neighborhood was going to go out,” says Pasquale Nacci, Resident of the Santa Nella Mobile Home Park.
The fire set off by a small campfire destroyed four homes and took down three electrical panels that energized 26 households. About 100 people were forced to live in the dark during the heat of the summer and into the chill of fall.
“Especially for us who have kids we didn’t have air-conditioning. We didn’t have light, and now with this colder weather now to get a heater. It’s another problem,” says Rosario Hernandez, Resident of the Santa Nella Mobile Home Park.
“It’s unbelievable when you have to live day by day, and hour by hour, that’s how we lived,” says Nacci.
Life has been anything but normal for Nacci, he lost food after the fire and has been living off a generator ever since, but despite his hardship he’s chosen to look on the bright side.
“Before that happened, we didn’t know nobody and all of a sudden that happened. We met people that we didn’t know we would ever be going to meet,” says Nacci.
Because the homes were privately owned, taxpayer dollars couldn’t be used to pay for the damage to the electrical grid.
So, Merced County along with the United Way of Merced County, came together to fill in the gaps and find the parts, but they faced a major setback.
“The panels would not be manufactured for 18 months, which meant that the entire community would go without electricity until a year from now we just couldn’t see that being a good alternative for our community,” says Janet Kasper, Director of Community Impact at United Way.
But they did not give up, several entities came together and did a nationwide search to find the parts needed.
They cost about $120,000 paid for by the county’s Community resiliency fund and partners including community foundation Merced County and Comcast.
An area often overlooked, this time was not forgotten.
“Merced County is frequently one of the poorest counties within the state and has lacks services and programs available to its residents and so what we’re finding is that it takes an entire community to cause change within our county,” says Robert Hypes, CEO United Way Merced County.
Families now able to enjoy the holidays with the lights back on.
“We see the light now, you know when you’re in the dark and you’re in the light now we’re in the light,” says Nacci.
United Way says there’s still one more panel that needs to be replaced and that should be complete by next week. If you’d like to donate to this community, you can visit the United Way website and when you hit the donate button you can specify where you’d like your money to go.
