A community is coming together to support their pastor after a fire destroyed his family’s Larchmont home, killing his two dogs over the weekend.
The blaze was reported at about 2:20 p.m. Sunday on Saint Andrews Place, according to first responders. Pastor Juan Galicia said he was delivering a sermon on hope at his South LA church when the fire broke out at his home.
“I was preaching and talking about, in the worst scenario, God always remembers you,” he said.
Galicia had lived in the home for more than 18 years with nine other family members. All of them were at church when the fire broke out. Six of his dogs were inside the home but sadly, two did not survive.
“It makes me cry because I know my pets were crying and looking for a way to escape and they couldn’t,” he said. “That makes me feel guilty.”
Galicia said the fire started in a vacant house next door and quickly spread to his home. His niece, Sonia Salinas, said the family had warned the city about safety issues with squatters there for more than a year.
“We feel devastated,” Salinas said. “We feel sad because we tried to avoid this kind of accident.”
The office of LA Councilmember Hugo Soto Martinez, who represents the district where the fire took place, said it’s aware of ongoing issues in the neighborhood and reached out to the property owner but never heard back. It added that its ability to intervene is limited because the vacant home is private property.
As Galicia and his family look for how to move forward, he said his faith and his message to his parishioners are what’s giving him strength to proceed during these trying times.