Family slowing putting lives back together after fire
The first piece of furniture to go up in flames at Joalexis Rivera’s home was a bed, firefighters said. Then the pillows and the sheets. In a matter of minutes — Rivera says it felt like less than 10 — the fire had spread to the closet and turned his clothes to ash.
Rivera’s wife, Maribel Rivera, had stored Christmas gifts — including a new pair of shoes for him — underneath the mattress, before a burning candle that was left on a nearby nightstand also consumed them, along with several rooms in their east Orange County home on Dec. 16.
“That day I felt like streams of hot water were coming down [my neck], I yelled so much,” said Maribel Rivera, 55. “Material things are replaceable, but it was about my family. Where are we going to go?”
While she was running errands down in Kissimmee the day of the incident, Joalexis Rivera was working in the backyard of his home on Spoonbill Avenue, tucked west of Goldenrod Road and south of Curry Ford Road. His 27-year-old son, who has a physical disability that affects his feet, told him his bedroom had caught on fire.
Joalexis Rivera tried to extinguish the fire himself, unsuccessfully, so he ran inside to carry out his 90-year-old mother-in-law, who uses a wheelchair, before the fire spread through the home.
The family is originally from Puerto Rico, and they moved to Tampa in 2009. They relocated to Orlando and rented their home a little over a year ago, where Joalexis Rivera works for a remodeling company, repairing cabinets and painting homes.
“It’s been 10 years of sacrifices,” said Joalexis Rivera, 41.
The family has been living at a Woodsprings Suites hotel room for the past three weeks. On Thursday, Global Mattress, a local company, donated four mat-
tresses with box springs for the family that they are keeping at a storage unit while they find a new place to live.
“We don’t sleep at night. All you think is: ‘OK, I’m sleeping here now. But what’s going to happen tomorrow?” Maribel Rivera said.
When the fire began to roar about 3 p.m. that day, Joalexis Rivera attempted to put down the flames, swatting them with his hands and feet out of instinct. He suffered minor injuries on his arms, legs and nose.
One of their three dogs, 2-year-old Benji, ran barking, back and forth from their house to their neighbors’ home and alerted them of the emergency.
Orange County Fire Rescue determined in a report that the flame from the candle was too close to combustible materials, which ultimately caused the fire.
Ilia Torres, regional director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, said she found out about the family’s situation through one of Joalexis Rivera’s coworkers. She contacted Global Mattress to see if there was anything the company could do to help the Riveras.
“We didn’t hesitate for a second in finding any resources to help the family,” Torres said on Thursday. She said PRFAA helped replace their vital documents and the City of Orlando’s Hispanic Office for Local Assistance donated furniture.
“Even after everything happened, when we got to the hotel,” Maribel Rivera said, “I asked, ‘Joalexis, didn’t you see the gifts I left under the bed?’ And he said: ‘No. The fire took it all.’”