Easy Fire Destroys Family’s Simi Valley Ranch: ‘We Left Literally With the Clothes on Our Back’

Three generations of the Casas Rodriguez family moved into a ranch with two homes in Simi Valley just nine months ago. On Wednesday, the Easy Fire ravaged the property, destroying both residences and all their belongings.

Nancy Casas said her husband saw the flames through the window just as the fire started burning around 6:20 a.m. along Tierra Rejada Road. The blaze came so quickly that they had to rush out. “I couldn’t even stop to help my parents because I had my children in the car, but my mom and dad were able to get [our dogs],” Nancy told KTLA on Thursday, the first time she returned to the property to find everything gone. Nancy’s husband alerted her father, who lived in the other home. “As soon as I opened the door, I [saw] the fire very close to our house and me and my wife just ran away…” said Luis Rodriguez, Nancy’s father. Luis said he and his wife, Francisca, are immigrants from Mexico and moved into the ranch just nine months ago. All of them escaped the blaze, as well as their horses. The Ventura County Fire Department has only confirmed two residences destroyed in the fire. Nancy said they’re happy to make it out alive, but that it’s tough knowing their homes couldn’t be spared. “We literally lost everything… We left literally with the clothes on our back,” she said. The family had just celebrated her daughter’s 10th birthday the day before the blaze ripped through their ranch, Nancy added. “We were all so happy. It’s hard to come back from that,” she said. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family recover. Christina Pascucci reports for the KTLA 5 Morning News on Oct. 31, 2019.