A phone call from her daughter. Then, a fatal blaze.

Esmeralda Ayala said she broke down when she first saw her children’s clothing among the charred remains of their home.

“Right now it is so unreal,” she said standing on the property on Friday. “I see it but I don’t believe it still even though it is right in front of me.”

Ayala’s 9-year-old daughter Destinee, 5-year-old son Izaya, mother and stepfather were found dead following a fire at their mobile home in a small community south of Modesto on Tuesday. She did not want to release her parents’ names until she could consult with her brother and sisters next week. Authorities have not released the names of any of the victims.

The home went up in flames after neighbors reported hearing an explosion at the house around 11 p.m.

Ayala said she spoke with her mother and Destinee about 30 minutes before that. Until about three years ago, Ayala lived in the mobile home with her parents and children but now lives with her husband and two younger children in Salida. She said Destinee and Izayah grew up there and wanted to stay when she moved but she would see them or talk to them every day.

“Every night (Destinee) would send me her goodnight texts,” Ayala said. “I still look down at my phone like she’s going to text me right now.”

During their conversation on Tuesday, Destinee asked her mom if she’d pick her up the next day.

“She wanted to come to my house …. we have a (Playstation 4) and she loved playing on the PS4,” Ayala said. “I told her … ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll come pick you up the next day when you are out of school, I’ll come pick you up.’ The next day came, that’s when I found out; that’s when I got the devastating news.”

Ayala described Destinee as her her “mini me.” She said she was a bright girl who loved playing the video games Minecraft and Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Destinee was in fourth grade and Izayah in kindergarten at Westport Elementary School. Authorities with the Ceres Unified School District said additional counselors will be on hand for students and faculty when school resumes after the Thanksgiving break on Monday. That’s also when autopsies are scheduled on all four victims.

Izayah had recently participated in a jog-a-thon and was so proud of a medal he earned, Ayala said.

“He was so happy; he would run around with it,” Ayala said. “They were both happy little kids.”

When Ayala spoke with her mom on Tuesday they talked about making the tamales that were the family’s Thanksgiving tradition.

Instead, on Thanksgiving Ayala said, “I just stayed in my room and cried. To me, right now the holidays don’t exist … I am thankful that I have my husband and my brother-in-law and everybody else in my life but to me right now there’s no holidays; I don’t want to celebrate anything.”

To help pay for the funeral expenses of the children and their grandparents go to www.gofundme.com/d5-my-babies?ssid=816281808&pos=6

This story was originally published November 25, 2016 at 6:27 PM with the headline "A phone call from her daughter. Then, a fatal blaze.."