TEMPE, AZ — Two weeks after a mobile home fire took away her mother-in-law, her boyfriend and her two young daughters, a Tempe woman continues receiving treatment at a hospital.
Most of her body was burned in the fire, but her family says the hardest thing is yet to come.
The devastating fire happened in Tempe’s Chaparral Village, killing four people, including 3-year-old Ariareli Ruiz and 18-month-old Ellany Ruiz.
Their mother, 22-year-old Valerie Magana-Gonzalez, continues clinging to life in the hospital after suffering third- to fourth-degree burns on most of her body.
Valerie remains in a medically induced coma to help with the pain.
“What right do I have to bury daughters that aren’t mine? You know, especially when she can’t even see them, hold them, do anything before they are put to rest,” said Jennifer Gonzalez, Valerie’s aunt.
Over the weekend, Magana-Gonzalez’s family hosted a drive-thru car wash, working tirelessly to raise money for funerals and for the medical treatment keeping their Valerie alive.
“It’s tough. We have our moments where we do break, but we also have our moments where we have to stay strong for Valerie,” said Araceli Davalos, another of Valerie’s aunts.
Valerie has been in and out of surgeries since the fire, but her family says the worst part is still to come: telling her the unimaginable.
“Because I’m a mother, I have five kids and there is nothing in the world that can replace that emptiness that she’s going to feel or that anger she’s going to feel once she realizes what’s been done,” said Jennifer.
The fire’s remnants at the mobile home park were still standing eerily quiet on Monday, with the make-shift memorial still strewn along the fence.
Neighbors told ABC15 that Valerie was fiercely protective of her kids and her boyfriend, Enrique “Junior” Ruiz, who also died in the fire.
A family, now left with the impossible.
“Before the memorial services, I asked to see if I can have her daughters there with her for at least an hour… just so that she can at least get her last goodbye without even knowing she’s saying her last goodbye so I could bring her that closure,” said Gonzalez.
There is a Zelle account set up to help the family under the email address synthia0815@gmail.com.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
