Father, sons struggle after house fire
Gaskin family living in a motel room, depending on kindness of strangers
Being an unemployed single father of four rambunctious boys — one with autism — was hard enough.
Then Troy Gaskin had a heart attack.
“It was my second backto-back heart attack, and they had to break my ribs to save me,” he told the Times-Herald.
Laid up with his ribs healing, he was hit with another blow: The home he rented went up in flames on March 19.
“I was sleeping on the couch with my 7-year-old when all of a sudden my whole house was engulfed in flames,” he said. He rushed all of his children outside with no shoes, not even socks. The only thing that survived the fire was his family and the clothes they had on their back.
He suspects it was an electrical fire, but no official cause has been determined. His brother Tim sent the Times-Herald a video of the carnage — appliances, mattresses, and all of their belongings are black and demolished.
In the meantime, he and his sons are living in a motel room and depending on the kindness of strangers. Many people have delivered homecooked meals and clothing, leaving Troy feeling incredibly blessed.
“Right now my focus is
to get a new place,” he said.
The house he had rented was a good deal for him, with multiple bedrooms and a big backyard for $1,425 on Tennessee Street. But finding something that he can afford again with his unemployment is going to be hard. Gaskin lost his job installing home entertainment systems during the pandemic.
Through a GoFundMe and other donations, he said he has enough money to put a down payment on a new rental and cover the first and last months. He just hasn’t had a lot of luck finding something in his price range. Once he gets a place, he also has to start from scratch to furnish it.
“I want to get my boys into a stable home where they can begin homeschooling again,” he said. Some good Samaritans donated four tablets for his kids to use in the meantime, but they lost their computer in the fire. His sons are 13, 11, 9 and 7.
Much of the help for the Gaskin family has come from the efforts of Allison Hill, a Vallejo resident who saw their need and set up the GoFundMe page. She initially helped Gaskin after he lost his job and had health issues, giving him the fixings for a wonderful Christmas dinner, plus “about 15 more bags of groceries,” he said.
“As a Vallejo native, it is my mission to help give back to my community,” said Hill. “Through social media platforms I was in touch and able to help the Gaskins with a holiday meal last year. After seeing his recent post about suffering cardiac arrest, then one week later being displaced from a house fire with his four sons, I knew in my heart it was only right to help in any way I could.”
Says Gaskin of Hill: “She’s a great woman.”
Gaskin says that his boys now have more than enough clothing through donations. He, on the other hand, is still wearing the same clothes that he had on in the fire, but his priority has been his kids.
He said he is using this as an opportunity to show his boys “how a man” steps up when the chips are down, but it’s apparent that he had to adjust to being a person who needs charity from others. But he’s struggling so much, he said, he doesn’t know how else he would survive.
To help the family out, donate to the GoFundMe here: www.gofundme.com/f/vallejo-familylost-everything-in-housefire. There is also a Meal Train account set up for them here, to deliver food: www.mealtrain.com/ trains/1on86w.
To reach Troy Gaskin or send an encouraging message, he can be reached at gaskin.troy@aol.com.