Yesterday, October 10th, at approximately 2:20pm Donald Ward began to smell smoke in his mobile home at the Villa Calimesa Mobile Home Park. He walked up the hill a short distance to see where it was coming from. He immediately ran back to his home and told his wife to get out of the house. At the time they were watching over Donald's 15-month-old granddaughter. Carmen, his wife, was used to fire warnings and did not understand the urgency they were under. After several pleas, he finally convinced her to leave the home and take the baby to safety. 

Now that Carmen and their young granddaughter were safely away, Donald and his neighbor attempted to save the homes. They made several desperate attempts to use their water hoses to wet the home and other structures. It was all for naught. The strong winds were too much, and the water hoses had little-to-to-effect. Within 5 minutes the fire had leaped over the hill and began to consume the homes. Donald grabbed what few emergency belongs he could (his insulin) and immediately got in his vehicle and drove to safety. 

However, things only began to get worse from there. Carmen's young daughter attended Mesa View Middle School and was less than 1 miles away from the fires. Natalia was in the library helping during the book fair. They began to smell smoke and looked out the windows to see funnels of smoke outside. Parents were already arriving in a panic trying to pick up their students. Soon after that the kids the bell rang for the end of the day and students were let out of school. Teachers, students, and parents began to panic. Natalia and other students were escorted to the gymnasium for safety. To top this off, their is only one road in and out to the school that was overrun with parents trying to get their children and flee the area. Natalia overheard parents speaking and quickly realized where she lived was where the fire was coming from. Carmen and the baby were unable to get to the school due to the road closure. Natalia was able to speak to her mother who advised her to go with the teachers. After a short while, a friend of Natalia was able to take her with them and reunite her with her parents. 

While Natalia was having her ordeal at school, Carmen was able to get to the High School and pick up her son without issue. Carmen, along with her children and granddaughter were able to escape safely. During that time, Donald drove a short distance away to the Walgreen's parking lot nearby to observe the fire. While he had held out help that his home would survive, it was futile. His other daughters were at their work watching the news live and could see their father's home burning along with other homes in the area. 

Their home was completely burned down and absolutely nothing was recoverable. The mobile home, which had been their home for the past 5 years was gone.

The Ward family must now rebuild their lives from nothing and need help to get back on their feet. Please consider donating to help this family who are trying to come to terms with their devastating situation. Every little bit helps.




1. Who you are and where you’re from
          -Matthew Batech from Fontana, CA
2. Your relationship or contact to the parties you're raising funds for
          -Son-in-law of the affected party
3. How the funds will be spent (be specific as possible)
           -The funds will be used to assist in the down payment and purchase of furniture for their new home. Their home was not insured due to the previous home being in a High Risk area for Fires and they are in need of the donations to help pay for the down payment of their new home. Also, all furniture was lost and they will need to purchase new bedroom sets, kitchen table, TVs and stands, couches, runs, lamps and kitchen appliances.   
4. Your withdrawal plan to get the funds from the campaign to the ultimate beneficiary/ies
           -I followed the information to send the funds to Donald Ward's email to allow them to withdraw the funds but their withdraw date continues to be pushed back.