Pawnee County woman wonders what to do next after wildfire destroys home

A woman living near Cleveland is still trying to figure out what to do next after wildfires destroyed her home and most belongings. Tara Upton says she can’t eat or sleep after losing almost everything she has.

Pictures in a scrapbook are one of the only things Upton has left. She grabbed it before flames swallowed her home.

“My slice of heaven, that’s what this was,” said Upton.

Dressed only in clothes that were donated to her after the fire, Tara surveys the home she built over the last 30 years. It was destroyed in minutes.

“We saw the air turn orange and we went outside,” she said. “We could smell smoke but no one had said it was near here.”

Aside from a few coffee mugs found in the rubble, there is not a lot to salvage for Upton. The home, tucked away in the Pawnee County woods, was the home the kids and grandkids loved to come visit.

“It’s not like it was some kind of a big mansion or anything like that but it was my home,” said Upton.

She does not have insurance and her only income comes from disability. The biggest questions she faces is what to do next and where to even start.

“I’m worried people are just going to move on with their life and just forget about the rest of us out here that don’t know where we’re going to go,” she said.

Upton has set up a GoFundMe for anyone who wants to help her financially. It can be found here.