‘We have nothing now’: Immigrant businesses devastated by fire in this Tulare County town
Anees Muthana, owner of the only grocery store in the Tulare County community of Poplar, was taking an afternoon nap earlier this month when one of his employees ran into his trailer home behind the market and woke him up. Muthana opened his eyes to see the tree outside his window lighting up with sparks from a hanging power cord.
Muthana, a 39-year-old immigrant from Yemen, rushed out of bed and ran outside. He watched as flames engulfed his trailer and store, Adam’s Market. He had inherited it from his parents, who opened up shop more than 50 years ago.
“Everything burned, everything I had inside — gone,” he said.
On July 9, a destructive blaze swept through Poplar, a town of about 2,200 people, burning homes and the main commercial corridor in a poverty-stricken community already reeling from the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fire, which occurred just north of Highway 190, displaced seven immigrant families and destroyed vital businesses, including a grocery store, butcher shop, bakery and hair salon.
Extreme weather conditions and searing heat waves have been plaguing most of the state this summer, contributing to an uptick in recent fire activity. Massive blazes have scorched millions of acres in Oregon, California and Washington. Smaller fires, like the one that tore through Poplar, get less attention yet are still devastating to local residents.
Located just 20 miles south from the city of Tulare, Poplar is prone to gusty winds and sweltering triple-digit heat in the summer — prime conditions for igniting fires. This latest fire is the third to occur in less than a year, said Mari Perez-Ruiz, executive director of the Central Valley Empowerment Alliance Services, a grassroots organization that advocates on behalf of the Valley’s rural and disadvantaged populations.
Now, after this most recent blaze, the small, neglected community is grappling with how to rebuild and regain what was lost.
Fire burns in Central Valley immigrant community
Poplar residents were struggling even before the fire. Like many other unincorporated communities, Poplar lacks a city council or access to many local resources like a fire department, hospital or a police station.
Tulare County has a “disproportionately high percentage” of its population living in disadvantaged unincorporated communities, according to a PolicyLink analysis from 2013. Though Tulare County is home to 11% of the total Central Valley population, it has 18% of the Valley’s unincorporated areas, the study finds. These areas are mainly home to people of color, including Black, Latino and immigrant communities.
The same report says unincorporated communities in the Valley are among the poorest in the state and often don’t have the most basic features of a sustainable community such as “potable drinking water, sewer systems, safe housing, public transportation, parks, sidewalks, and streetlights.” Existing infrastructure, meanwhile, is often falling apart or hasn’t been repaired in years.
Many of these communities are “too small, lack clear boundaries, or are simply not sufficiently known” to be included in the U.S. Census, it says. And without that recognition, it’s even harder for these areas to get resources.
These are challenges that have only become worse with the pandemic, said state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, whose district includes Poplar.
“Unincorporated communities of the Central Valley have disproportionately been impacted by COVID-19 and far too often they’ve been left out of resources,” Hurtado said. “I come from a rural community. I know how frustrating it can be to individuals who feel like they’re not being included or are being left out.”
The fire left Poplar residents in an even more dire state.
The fire ignited in the late afternoon, just before the Central Valley Empowerment Alliance Services was scheduled to hold a youth vaccine event at the local community center, called the Larry Itliong Research Center. Residents from across the county were also distributing new school materials, clothes, backpacks and lunchboxes for school children returning to classes in the fall. The fire destroyed those supplies as well as some non-perishable foods that a local organization had been storing for some of the town’s poorest residents.
No one was injured in the fire.
Several days later, all that remained of the structures were scraps of metal and mounds of distorted wood. Pools of ash and other debris polluted the ground and adjacent buildings. The community center survived the blaze but the remaining items that weren’t burned — donated baby supplies, diapers, clothes, and food — were contaminated with water and soot, Perez-Ruiz said.
“It was heartbreaking to see the destruction,” she said. “It’s tragic.”
Residents say the fire was caused by electric utility company Edison International’s hot power lines, which were hanging too close to the trees above the businesses. Tulare County Fire Department Capt. Joanne Bear said Tuesday afternoon that the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Southern California Edison spokesperson Chris Abel said the company is conducting an independent investigation to determine the cause.
“First and foremost our thoughts are with the Poplar community during this difficult time,” he told The Bee Tuesday. “We’re reviewing the facts and circumstances of this incident.”
Immigrant business owners still ‘in shock’ after fire
Even before the fire, Muthana’s business was struggling.
The pandemic had already brought an onslaught of new challenges that had financially strained his business. His cousin and store manager, Ezize Hassan, 30, hoped the new year would allow their business to resume normal operations.
Hassan said the pandemic was difficult for small businesses in rural areas because supplies ran short and many vital necessities were often difficult to obtain. It left many mom-and-pops without anything to restock or sell, he said, forcing the town’s residents to commute greater distances to get household essentials.
“The pandemic did affect us big time,” Hassan said.
But the hardships the family endured amid the pandemic did not prepare them for the most recent catastrophe.
Muthana had visited his eight children and wife in Yemen just a couple weeks earlier, hoping to complete a two-year immigration process to bring his family back to the U.S. But when the massive blaze burned down his business and home, it also eviscerated the family’s immigration documents.
Apart from losing everything he owned, he now has to start the entire process over again to be reunited with his family, he said.
“Getting everything ready and papers from there is kind of hard because now there’s war over in Yemen,” Muthana said. “We have to start all over again.”
Gregorio Rodriguez and Sylvia Almanza had always dreamed of owning their own business. For a little more than two years, the Mexican couple fulfilled that goal by opening La Potosina, a Mexican bakery serving pan dulce, specialty pastries and bread. They hoped to grow their business and potentially expand one day.
Rodriguez said the past year was brutal for their business and that they had barely started to recover from the pandemic. They didn’t receive any government assistance to keep them afloat and had accrued multiple costs and debts.
But in less than 30 minutes, the fire shattered their hopes and destroyed evidence of their hard work.
“It happened so fast,” Rodriguez said in Spanish. “We have nothing now. We don’t know what we’re going to do. I keep waking up in the morning wishing that it was just a dream.”
As the fire raged, Almanza remembers seeing burning pine embers fall from the gutted building as bystanders ran from the scene. She wailed at the sight of the flames turning years worth of effort, planning and money into a thick, black haze of smoke. Her 12-year-old daughter’s eyes welled with tears when she saw the town’s entire lot of businesses wiped out and the charred remains of the panaderia at her feet, she said.
“More than 10 years of work, saving money, little by little — gone,” Almanza said in Spanish. “We thought we could build a life here. We still haven’t processed what has happened. We are in shock. We don’t want this to be true.”
Many of the displaced residents said they were given Red Cross vouchers to help cover some costs of food and lodging while the community plans on next steps and cleans up debris. But those funds are quickly running out. None of the business owners said they had insurance or knew how they would pay for the rebuilding costs.
Perez-Ruiz, of the Central Valley Empowerment Alliance Services, said the organization is working with local leaders to find solutions for the town’s residents. To help the families get back on their feet, the organization has also set up a GoFundMe fundraiser for those who were affected.
It’s the least they can do for a community that has already suffered so much, Perez-Ruiz said.
“This little business area was the lifeline of the community,” she said. “They’ve lost so much.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2021 at 5:00 AM.