Karole Kopecky, a Canyon Country resident, was having a normal day and grabbing dinner on her way home from her second job, when her next-door-neighbor’s daughter called her saying she needed to get home immediately — because Kopecky’s home was on fire.
Racing to her mobile home and seeing Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel turn into her neighborhood, Kopecky said she could see smoke and the glow of the flames from Soledad Canyon Road.
First responders were dispatched to the 20400 block of Soledad Canyon Road following reports of a structure fire at approximately 8:15 p.m. Friday and the first responding unit arrived in five minutes to a fully engulfed mobile home, Capt. David Dantic, with the Fire Department, said on Saturday afternoon.
Now, two days after the tragic incident — which not only destroyed all of her material possessions but also claimed the lives of her cat and her dog — Kopecky said she has just been overwhelmed.
“I kind of think I’m lost and living in a nightmare. Um … A very dear friend of mine took me yesterday, so I need to get some clothes here, you know. And I, I, I was so overwhelmed in the store. I just, it was awful,” Kopecky said.
Kopecky added that in the week before she had to deal with this incident, she had to unexpectedly put down her other dog, Tyson, on Jan. 2.
She said she did not know what caused the fire.
“Yeah, it’s still kind of up in the air. They haven’t (said anything). My gut feeling is it was probably electrical. It was an older mobile home,” Kopecky said during a phone interview on Sunday afternoon. “It was from the early ’70s. Um, and I’ve had some, some problems for certain, certain outlets quit working. You know, it’s just, it’s old.”
Pauline McGee, public information officer for the Fire Department, said that the cause of the fire was still unknown, as of the publication of this story.
An online donation page has been created to help Kopecky financially. To donate, visit www.givesendgo.com/Karole.
