Belen family loses everything in house fire

BELEN, N.M. – One Belen family is hoping for a Christmas miracle this year after their house went up in flames.

While they are grateful no one was hurt in the fire, it’s been a struggle for all nine of them to live in a hotel – looking for a new home with no luck.

“There was water everywhere, all of our belongings burnt, it’s pretty much indescribable,” Amber Ryan said.

On Dec. 12, their dryer caught on fire and quickly spread to the rest of their house. In seconds everything they owned was gone.

“It happened very quickly we barely had time to get out my in-laws who are disabled and my husband and my oldest son pretty much had to drag my in-laws out of the house,” Ryan said.

Now for over a week a Los Lunas hotel has been their new home: two hotel rooms for 4 adults and 5 kids, most of them under the age of ten. The Red Cross covered the cost for four days, but after that ran out, they still had nowhere to go.

“We have been looking for houses and the housing market right now is through the roof and there is nothing that we can afford right now, we are pretty much stuck here as long as we can afford it,” Ryan said.

And with Christmas only a few days away, the children are asking when they can go home.

“It makes me feel kind of worthless, that we are in this situation and as a mom I can’t do anything so this Christmas is going to be hard and they are little they don’t understand,” Ryan said.

If you want to help the family, you can donate to their GoFundMe page or their elementary school, Dennis Chavez Elementary, is also accepting donations.