POCATELLO — Within hours of losing their mobile home to a fire early Tuesday morning, Rickie Serrano and her family say they found out just how many people care about them and their well being.

    “Until you need your family and friends, you don’t know they’re really there,” Serrano said early Tuesday evening. “It’s just been outrageous, all the help they have given. I think it’s awesome.”

    Serrano said the fire at her home in the Highland Meadow mobile home  community, located at 1730 West Quinn Road, broke out at about 1 a.m. around the wiring where a window air conditioner was plugged in. It wasn’t long, she said, before the whole home was burning.

    “Flames were shooting out of the back and the front,” Serrano said of the air conditioner. “I pushed it out the window. I tried to get my fire extinguisher to work and it wouldn’t work.”

    That’s when her son, Anthony, said they needed to leave. As they ran from the home, she called her boyfriend, Kyle Steed, then her parents, who live nearby. Family continued to come to their aid during the morning hours.

    Then word began to spread via social media. By noon, friends began showing up. Neighbors were stopping to ask if they can help. Even the bishop from the local ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stopped to let her know they were available to assist Serrano and her family.

    “It’s just been everybody coming out of the woodwork,” Steed said. “People driving by and asking, ‘Hey, what can we do to help?’ I’ve lived here for 43 years, and that’s why I like this town, good people.”

    Because she was renting the mobile home, Serrano had no insurance on her possessions. Everything is lost, including her son’s truck, which was parked close to the home and caught fire. Another car that was parked close to the home was also damaged beyond use.

    Steed realized that without insurance, it would be on them to pay to clean up the site. By that time, another friend was at the home, Gary Dixon, the coach of the Portneuf Valley All High School Rugby team, on which Serrano’s son Anthony plays.

    Dixon called team member families when he found out about the fire, letting them know of the need.

    “I immediately called a couple of my rugby players to have them start rounding up some donations, some cash, some clothes and get the ball rolling,” Dixon said.

    By about 3 p.m., the city had delivered a large Dumpster and people were ready to get to work. By 6:30 p.m., literally half of the mobile home had been broken down and put in the Dumpster. They estimate the cleanup will be complete by sometime today.

    With the backbreaking work of cleaning coming to an end, the focus is quickly shifting to raising some money to help get Serrano and her family back on their feet, clothed and in a new place to live.

    Dixon is working on getting those donations together through his Honey Badgers rugby team, but lots of help is going to be needed. Those who wish to donate can reach Dixon via email at dixogar2@isu.edu, or bring it down to Idaho State University Federal Credit Union and let them know you want to make a donation for the Serrano family to the Honey Badgers rugby account.

    Don’t go too early today, however, because Dixon said he didn’t have time to set up the account on Tuesday and would be doing it sometime today.