IMPERIAL, Calif. – An entire community came together to help a family whose house burned down on Thursday, April 7, 2011.
Janna Linz, a student of Imperial Valley College who arrived in the U.S. four months ago from Germany, received
Janna Linz sifts through the remains of her bedroom in Brawley, Calif.
academic support from the Imperial Valley College IVC Foundation. The family also received basic living material support from The American Red Cross.
The house, along with three other trailers and a dune buggy, was burned down inside Dunes Storage, a storage facility managed by Eric Foster, fiancé of Anja Childers, who is Linz’s aunt.
The fire, according to Foster, was caused by a power line that fell due to high winds that day.
Linz, 21, left Germany in order to continue her education in the U.S. As a registered nurse major, Linz’s goal is to become a doctor. “It’s a good job,” Linz said. “I just have to stay in school and not quit.”
The family now lives in two trailers borrowed from friends and clients that have their trailers stored at the facility. “We probably will have the house rebuilt,” said Childers. “If not then preferably we want to get a manufactured home.”
Since Linz is from Germany, she is currently on a student visa, but her passport was lost in the fire. “There are so many things to do,” said Linz, regarding the retrieval of documents, textbooks, and personal belongings lost in the fire. Linz was excused from her classes for a couple of days in order to go retrieve a new passport.
The following is an audio slideshow in the aftermath of the fire. To read captions, please use the full-screen mode.
Nice job, Jorge! And good luck to Janna and her family!
Great job, Jorge! I hope everything goes well with her family.
Good Job Jorge!
Great article! Thanks for raising awareness of this story.
This is a really good and touching story. Good job Jorge!
yes pretty story and props to Jorge, but everybody should stop congratulating Jorge for the Story and try to help our fellow student Janna. I think Jorge is more concerned about making this news available to more people to get them to help than to get props and recognition for his writing. Some students raised a fund and bought walmart gift cards for Janna, who was left with only the pair of clothing she was wearing that day and slept on a car for the first days before she could borrow a trailer from friends. Please look into your hearts everybody and lets help out our sister. It could of happen to anyone of us!
Awsome job thank you so much.
I store my trailer there. Glad to know everyone was ok! I do know that some crazy girl lived there, but she was way older then a college student. The guy that lives at storage was always nice, but the other girl was scary.