A single dad who was forced to live in a ramshackle tent compound with his four children for months after a wildfire destroyed their home was surprised with an RV.
For six months, single father Eric Hatch and his four children were forced to live in a series of flimsy tents, after the unforgiving Caldor Fire destroyed their home in the now ravaged town of Grizzly Flats, California.
But thanks to the oldest Hatch child’s determination to not let the trying situation get in her way of being a straight-A student, the family has seen a new beginning.
Layla’s teacher learned the conscientious youngster had been walking around her fire-ravaged neighborhood trying to pick-up WiFi hotspots to do her homework.
That teacher reached out to EmergencyRV.org, an organization that gifts Rvs to wildfire victims, and shared Layla’s commitment.
During an interview with local news station KCRA3, the family was surprised with their new home, as the children marveled at the prospect of having a place to call home.
‘Are you serious?’ one of the siblings said, while Eric Hatch effusively thanked Emergency RV founder Woody Faircloth.
‘Time flies when you are busy busy, you know. Fighting the weather most of the time. I’m trying to cook and yeah shower up and get them ready for school and [help them] do homework,’ Hatch said.
The Hatch family lived in Grizzly Flats for years until the Caldor Fire, which burned 221,835 acres during the 2021 California Wildfire season, also destroyed their home in its path.
Fire responders contained the fire in late October, more than two months after it started, but by then it had left irreparable effects on the lives of thousands.
Among them, Eric Hatch and his four children, all minors.
The situation was especially difficult during the winter, as they resorted to seeking shelter in tents that did not completely shield them from the cold and wind.
Everyday activities suddenly became a hassle for the family of five.
‘We don’t really have a bathroom. Showering is not easy and [the water] is not hot,’ Layla told KCRA3 before the family was told about the new RV.
‘It really did break us all because now we’re all kind of lost, but we still have each other no matter what.’
It was precisely Layla’s commitment to not give up that led to the heartwarming RV donation after a teacher moved by her story reached out to EmergencyRV.org.
The charity, in partnership with the California Fire Foundation, arranged for the new RV to be given to the Hatch family.
‘A teacher reached out to us and told us, ”I have an amazing student. She’s really smart, straight As,”’ charity founder Woody Faircloth said.
‘She lost her home in the Caldor Fire and despite that, she’s still a straight-As student. She walks down the street to find a wi-fi hotspot to do her homework.’
EmergencyRV is a charitable organization that was started in response to the deadly November 2018 Campfire, which destroyed the entire town of Paradise and left more than 50,000 residents displaced.
Faircloth and his then six-year-old daughter, Luna, were moved by the pain of the thousands left homeless and created the organization to raise funds to purchase RVs.
According to its website, EmergencyRV has helped hundreds of wildfire victims.
Meanwhile, Eric Hatch says it has been hard to find a new job because he has to take care of his four children under less than optimal circumstances.
The family has created a GoFundMe to help them transition to a somewhat normal life after the Caldor Fire wrecked everything familiar to them.
‘I’m just trying to keep going forward so I can get all four of them back with me full time in a house and not dealing with this but I think they stay more positive than me, when I start breaking down they pick me up,’ Hatch said.
Victims of the Caldor Fire have pleaded with government agencies for help.
They have released a video directed at the federal government after FEMA denied assistance to people who lost their homes and businesses.
According to the agency. ‘the impact to the individuals and households from this event was not of such severity and magnitude to warrant.’
Those impacted are now calling for President Biden to follow up on promises he made when visiting the scene of the fire in September.
‘We’re going to take care of you,’ Bide said at the time.
According to CALFire, more than 700 homes were affected by the Caldo Fire, and to this day, many residents are still homeless, living in cars, or relying on the kindness of family members and friends.
‘We lost our church; we lost our fire station; we lost our forest service station; we lost our school. Like, how much more of a community did we need to lose in order to get assistance?’ Candance Tyler, a victim of the fire, said in the video.