Rick Arrate
The Hawk Fire has destroyed dozens of homes in the Reno area.
"Hey, you guys, I own nothing,” says Rick Arrate, who lives on Peavine Peak. “I have nothing, and I've collected for 68 years. It was devastating.”
Rick Arrate owns a seven-acre property on Peavine Peak overlooking Stead. Over the weekend, the Hawk Fire snuck up on him as firefighters worked to battle it back. Unfortunately, there's nothing left.
"The firemen showed up, and they had three big red trucks and 25 men and a D6 dozer,” Arrate says, “And they dozed all around my house, and they chopped brush. They cut down my apple trees and moved. They did an incredible job, but it didn't get saved."
Arrate bought the property over 20 years ago at auction. When the fire ripped through, all he could grab was his two dogs, his guns, and dog food.
He returned while the fire was still active and found a smoldering pile of what used to be his home.
The road toward rebuilding is going to be rocky.
“Do I know how? No,” he says. “But I just believe somehow it's going to happen and I'm going to still live happily ever after."
The worst part? No insurance provider would touch his home.
“It's very remote, and I couldn't even find anybody to talk to me about insurance. Not for any amount of money in the world,” he says.
In almost seven decades in the Truckee Meadows, Arrate says he's never had to ask for widespread community support.
But now, he needs it more than ever.
“I want a cheap set of building plans, and I want a backhoe so I can go up there, just to borrow one,” he says. “Just to go up there and start moving stuff. I want to get out of my daughter's house. I'm living in someone else's house. I'm a hermit. I live on my own. I do my own thing, and I need to get back up there."
Arrate's granddaughter has set up a GoFundMe for him. The goal is currently set at $100,000. At the time of writing, $21,894 has already been raised.
