Fire Victims Return To Their Homes

As residents in the Silver City area surveyed the damage from the Quail Ridge Fire Wednesday, Governor Susana Martinez also was there meeting with victims and emergency crews.

As people returned to their homes after Monday night?s evacuation, the real devastation began.

“All that’s left is a beautiful view,” Jess Psarakis, who lost everything in the fire, said.

Only charred debris and a view remain where Psarakis?s home once stood.

“The house was beautiful,? Psarakis said. ?To see it gone is pretty devastating.”

Psarakis?s home was one of 13 destroyed by the human-caused blaze.

?You take a look at something like this, and some idiot smoking a cigarette threw it off on the freeway here, which they think that?s what happened? this is it,? Psarakis said. “We got out with the computer, the dog and the suburban; that was it.”

Monday night the wind-driven fire ignited and spread rapidly in the Silver City area. It has now scorched nearly 1,800 acres.

?It?s devastating, I mean, to think that somebody is so inconsiderate they?ll throw a cigarette out in this kind of weather, knowing how dry it is around here,? Helen, another resident whose home was spared from the fire, said. ?It?s unbelievable anybody could even think about doing something like that.?

A crew took ABC-7 through one neighborhood in the path of destruction. The landscape was lifeless and black.

“We?re saved and my neighbors lost, I mean, everything,” Jim Zawacki, who lives next door to Psarakis, said. ?You look at my home and you say, ?why,? we?re lucky, God was looking after us but it?s hard when you see your neighbors.?

Helen said she lived in the Silver Acres neighborhood with her dog Elsa for the past four years. From her backyard, she can see the roof of another home that did not make it. She thanks her neighbors for saving hers.

“They had their properties trimmed down to a half-inch and so it didn’t burn, and that I think actually protected us,? Helen said. ?We were just very, very lucky.”

Others were not so fortunate. They have to piece their lives back together.

“You’re 67 years old and you’re looking at starting over again.? Psarakis said. ?I have no idea. I’m just playing it by ear right now.”

How to help with relief efforts:

Make donations to Quail Ridge Fire victims at the Western Bank of Silver City.

Make donations to Red Cross, Southwestern New Mexico Chapter, http://www.swnmredcross.org/

Make donations to help animals and pets at the High Desert Humane Society, http://www.highdeserthumane.org/