They moved 2 weeks ago. The family home they now inherited is destroyed in the Mountain fire – Press Enterprise

The Bibby family watched flames lick their car door as they drove away from the home they had just inherited in the Camarillo hills. Ken and Brittanie had just enough time to evacuate with their 15-month-old son, his mother, grandmother and two dogs.

That was all they had with them.

The Bibbys had returned to California just two weeks ago after more than four years in Arizona. They were settling into the house they had inherited from Brittanie Bibby’s family.

On Wednesday morning, November 6, he received a text from a friend warning him about the fire and telling him to be careful. A few hours later, the fire spread to Highway 118 and, driven by strong Santa Ana winds, began moving down the mountain toward Bibby’s home.

“The winds were so strong they ripped out the gutters from my house,” Brittanie Bibby recalled on Friday, November 8th.

A knock on his door from the authorities confirmed that it was time to go. She called her husband home from work to help evacuate his family. He finally made it after his normal 10-minute commute to work at Trader Joe’s took 40 minutes.

“I was going into the nursery to get stuff for the baby and there was a tickling in my brain that told me, ‘Look out the window,'” Brittanie said. “I looked and there were flames across the street.”

She had to make the decision to leave everything behind to get the family out: her asthmatic sons, who had once been a baby in the neonatal intensive care unit and whose medications had also run out, her mother-in-law, and her mother-in-law with dementia. He also had to take in two dogs: a 9-year-old boxer and a 19-year-old poodle terrier.

“I held my son to my chest as I ran out the door and all I could see was flames across the street, touching the front yard,” Ken Bibby said.

Brittanie described an apocalyptic scene as she sped away from the house; The car windows framed pitch black smoke and orange fire.

“As we were driving down the street, the flames were coming up to the car,” he said.

At 15.30 they saw the first satellite images confirming that their house was engulfed in flames.

Brittanie said there have been three generations of child-raising in the family home. They wanted to raise their son there, too, where he could enjoy a pool, backyard and front lawn.

“We finally felt like we had made it,” Ken said. “We have nothing now.”

Gone were the paintings, ornaments, wedding photos and other relics of the past. Both Ken and Brittanie Bibby lost their father’s ashes along with Brittanie’s mother’s. Avocado and citrus trees planted in the 1970s and cared for by Brittanie Bibby’s grandparents for decades were also destroyed.

Ken Bibby said his grandmother was crying, devastated by her loss and confused about the turn of events because of her cognitive issues. The baby is visibly unsettled by this change.

“He’s not wearing his normal clothes, which smell like the detergent we use,” Ken Bibby said.

Instead of being a burden to their friends and family, the Bibbys planned to spend Friday night at a homeless shelter.

In addition to the emotional trauma of losing valuables and irreplaceable keepsakes, the Bibbys are also grappling with devastating financial losses. The family organized an event GoFundMe To replace the baby’s essential items, such as feeding bottles.

They are unsure of what their financial future will be like. The cost of repairing the dilapidated house had consumed most of his savings. Ken Bibby says the attorney in charge of the foundation that gave them the house also believes there is no fire insurance on the property.

“I would recommend anyone in any fire zone to take their memories and important documents and digitize them,” Brittanie Bibby said. “Put them on an external hard drive that you can easily access and keep a bag with you.”

“I don’t wish this on anyone,” Ken Bibby said. “I feel bad for the other families and everyone else who lost their homes.”