Family, community rally to help woman whose home burned in Mulberry Fire

Betty Ecret is slowly snapping out of a fog after relatives broke the news Sunday that her house was destroyed by the Mulberry Fire that raged near the Santa Rita foothills.

The 78-year-old monitor for Corona Foothills Middle School in the Vail Unified School District was in Indiana to attend her great-grandson’s First Holy Communion.

“I couldn’t comprehend it,” recalled Ecret in an email interview. “I felt like I was in a dream.”

The fire that broke out Saturday burned 1,755 acres — destroying three houses and a shed. The blaze also damaged electrical power poles, which were replaced by Tucson Electric Power Co., restoring power to about two dozen affected customers. The fire was contained Tuesday, according to Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.

Pima County Sheriff’s Department arson detectives are investigating the fire, which began eight miles southeast of Vail. The cause is undetermined, said Deputy Ryan Inglett, a spokesman.

Ecret lost everything in the house where she lived for 26 years and shared with her late husband, Bill, a man she would have celebrated 61 years of marriage with this August. Bill built the home’s fireplace, kitchen island and a ramada for the family gatherings.

What hurts most, said Ecret was “losing all my family pictures — all my grandchildren, my grandmother, my mom and dad.” The fire also destroyed a “very special cross” that was more than 100 years old. It belonged to her grandmother.

Her two-bedroom home sat on 10 acres on property known as the Wild Wind Ranch near the Empire Mountains that Ecret describes as a “spiritual mountain.”

“My home was all about family,” said Ecret, recalling her loving five children and grandchildren who gathered for family celebrations and would hike up the mountain.

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“My mind hasn’t caught up to the reality of it all. I’m just so glad that my neighbor was not hurt when her home was destroyed” she said of neighbor Jill McCain, a former Vail school district board member.

Ecret also said that her nephew, Robert Weingart, was “barely able to save his home from the fire, but did lose a shed holding all of his construction tools for work.”

Ecret did not have home insurance because no company would cover her property because it was not near a fire hydrant, said her granddaughter Jennifer Jepson, a teacher in the Vail district.

“The hardest thing about all of this is simply just knowing she’s hurting,” explained Jepson. “My mom-mom is and always has been full of strength and love. Throughout my life she has been that one constant, unchanging entity. She’s strong, hardworking and just that get-up-and-go-no-matter-what kind of gal. She’s sharp, feisty and classy all wrapped up in one.”

Family, friends, the Vail school district and the Tucson community are working to help Ecret start over and get a home back on the Wild Wind Ranch. A Gofundme account has raised more than $10,000 of a $35,000 goal.

“A massive effort is underway by the district to try to help her clear the land and get a manufactured home on it,” said Darcy Mentone, a Vail school district spokeswoman. She said a Tucson construction company is willing to survey the land and help clear it, and Mentone is working on possibly getting a manufactured home donated.

When told of the community efforts, Ecert said her faith, family and friends are helping her cope and move forward.

“It is such a blessing to be part of this community and the Vail school system,” said Ecert. “I just feel so humbled that so many people are reaching out to help me. I can’t express my gratitude enough for all the outpouring of love and support I have received from everyone.”