A fire that happened days after Christmas that left a McIntosh family homeless and destroyed most of its possessions is now serving as a reminder of how the local community comes together to help those in need.
“The local VFW is amazing,” said Eryn Galli. “The local food bank, Bethel Storehouse has also been very helpful. It’s overwhelming how much help we’ve gotten. It goes against our family grain.”
Galli and her husband, Mitchell Galli, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, are both on long-term disability and they were living in the trailer as part of a rental-assistance program with Help NM, she said.
Their two adult sons, who also live with them, as well as a daughter who was visiting from Texas for the holidays, all were at home relaxing in their spaces when the fire started Dec. 27
“My husband and I were in our room watching a movie on the computer and during the movie, I heard a continuous beeping,” Eryn Galli recalled. “It wasn’t very loud so I had to pause the movie and take a look to see what was going on. Then I smelled smoke outside. And directly in my line of view to the kitchen and I saw a glow.”
Information from the Moriarty Fire Department showed the fire started shortly after 6 p.m. and units from Moriarty, Estancia and Torrance County all responded. It was determined the fire was electrical in nature.
But by that time there was little that could be done.
“I ran out into the living room and into the kitchen and I see a fire in the middle of the swamp cooler and it’s now climbing up the wall. A blanket that was draped over it was already burning and climbing the wall and onto the ceiling. I immediately screamed, ‘Fire,’ pushed my daughter out the front door, and yelled again, ‘Fire. Everybody get out.’”
While all of the adults were able to get out easily, the family’s service dog posed more of a problem.
“After I made sure everyone was out, my husband’s service dog started freaking out,” Eryn Galli said. “I had to chase him into our bedroom, drag him out from underneath the computer desk and pretty much bodily carry him.”
The year-and-half Labrador/pit bull weighs about 65 pounds and was quite a handful, she said.
“I grabbed his harness and started putting it on him and pushing him to (son) Brandon,” Eryn Galli said.
Since then, the family has essentially had a roof over their heads out of the kindness of their neighbor.
“We’re pretty much homeless. We’re currently coach surfing at our next door neighbor’s house and former property manager, Kimberly Soto,” Eryn Galli said. “She’s with Help NM, a wonderful non-profit that helps people with housing. People who need help obtaining housing. She’s a wonderful woman. She doesn’t get enough credit.”
That, however, was just a temporary solution and the family remains rather desperate to find something more permanent.
In the meantime, VFW 3370 has been stockpiling all kinds of things for the family to help it get back on its feet.
“We were able to get them in touch with the (state) Veterans Integration Center in Albuquerque to help them with re-housing and emergency housing,” said Mark Riddle, post adjutant. “Our public response to this has been absolutely incredible. One of the great things about our farm and ranch communities is neighbors helping neighbors. It’s really showed through.”
The VFW has collected a king-size bed, two full-size mattresses, a couch and a loveseat. The organization has accumulated blankets, linens, clothes from the public, and Rose’s Guns/the Moriarty Flea Market chipped in with a storage unit to hold everything until the family gets settled in their own place again, he said.
The VFW and the restaurant Yours, Mine, Ours in Cedar Crest set up cash donation jars.
“The public response has been just fantastic,” Riddle said.
Indeed, it’s helped ease a bit of the sting from the disaster, Mitchell Galli said.
“It means a lot to me, it really does to me and my family both,” he said. “We lost everything in that fire. We didn’t know how to recoup. We didn’t know what to do. We’ve had a lot of help from our community. It is amazing. You have to have faith in a community that is willing to help somebody that they don’t know.”