Jun. 20—Don Spencer was at home in Ruidoso Monday afternoon talking with his daughter Tammy Claunch on FaceTime when he she saw smoke outside his window.

“I said, ‘Wow, that looks really close,'” Claunch told the Journal during a phone interview. “He said, ‘Yeah, (but) it looks like it is going the other way.'”

Claunch said her 74-year-old father got the order to evacuate hours later. He and other relatives first went to Ruidoso Downs, but they had to later evacuate again. Some of the family members then went to stay in Carlsbad. Spencer decided to go to nearby Alto to be with his girlfriend instead.

The South Fork Fire burned his house and property, including three vehicles, a sailboat and motor home, he said. What was left was Spencer’s pickup truck with 200,000 miles on it, his coonhound named Lucy and the clothes on his back.

Spencer said while a couple of gas stations are open in the village, no one is allowed in the area and food is an issue. But, “the few of us here got enough to get by.”

“It’s pretty ugly, but we’ll pull through,” he said.

Looking toward the future

About 15 years ago, Spencer moved from the Texas Hill Country to the cabin in Brady Canyon to take care of his dying mother, who bought it in the 1960s, Claunch said.

“He fell in love with the place and has spent the last decade cleaning out the house, fixing it up and making repairs with his own two hands,” she said.

The retired Spencer, who served in the Army, spends his free time fixing computers for fellow veterans and helping them apply for benefits and get doctor appointments, Claunch said.

“He is always doing something or fixing something or helping someone out with something they need around the house,” she said.

Spencer also works security part time for a company that gathers data on area properties and drives around the area in his pickup to make sure homes and properties are secure, “to keep an eye on things.”

“I’m glad I have a job,” he said. “I’m 74 years old and a disabled veteran, so I am staying busy. I don’t have time to worry about myself. There are a lot of folks hurting worse than me.”

Claunch said while she speaks to her dad daily, she worries about him. She said feels helpless because she lives over 700 miles away in Houston.

“I am fighting the urge to drive in the car and head up there and bring my dad underwear, jeans and tennis shoes, basic stuff, and to sit with him as he processes what has happened,” she said. “The family is like, ‘You can’t get into Ruidoso. There are no hotels.’ I’m just sitting here waiting to help.”

While Claunch has to stay in Texas for now, she has set up a GoFundMe page. The goal is to raise $50,000 to help her father find a new place. As of 5 p.m. Thursday, people had donated $2,250.

“It’s going to take a lot of money to get him a new place to live,” she wrote on the page. “As we wait for the dust to settle in Ruidoso (the fires are still burning) we are faced with immediate questions around housing. Is Ruidoso going to be habitable? Will he still want to live there? Will he need to relocate somewhere else?

“We just don’t know yet.”