'God's got a plan'

The turtle's safe and so is one of his daughter's 6-foot cardboard poster of Jacob Black from "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" movie. Even though half the family home was damaged by fire, Bob Ontiveros feels blessed.

No one was at the seven-bedroom house Sunday when the fire was reported at 2:09 p.m., said Ontiveros, 50.

"I know God's got a plan," he said Monday, grateful for the 20 phone calls from church members offering help after the blaze on Orchard Way that also spared the family's four dogs and turtle.

Sutter County Fire Chief Dan Yager carried dogs Pookie and Bambi in his arms to the Ontiveros family when they returned home Sunday from church and a trip to Walmart.

Princess, a terrier, appeared as well.

"She came out when she heard our voices," Ontiveros recalled of the animal emerging from the one-acre property. The fourth dog, a Queensland Heeler named Cheech, is safe in Nevada County at the home of another daughter.

Dianna Ontiveros, 17, said the $30 poster of Jacob survived, an outcome that all Olivia Ontiveros, 17, had in her room didn't share.

The fire is believed to have begun in her bedroom and everything in there — family pictures, clothes and 30 pairs of shoes — is gone.

"It hurts a lot," she said.

Mary Ontiveros, 19, found her iPod — among items firefighters removed — outside the house and still working.

Bob Ontiveros expects it to be months before the family can return to the house, which they learned was on fire Sunday when a friend of one his daughters phoned.

"They were cutting holes through the roof," Ontiveros recalls hearing of firefighters.

Cause of the fire is under investigation.

Pastor Jim Clark of the Crossroads Community Church in Yuba City, which Ontiveros attends, said church members have offered help including rebuilding the house in Live Oak.

"He is a phenomenal man," Clark said of Ontiveros. "He has raised many, many foster kids."

The pastor said the Live Oak resident's attitude after the fire was, "Things happen. We'll get through this."

People attending the Live Oak Nazarene Church have also reached out to the Ontiveros family and offered furniture to replace what was lost in the fire.

Mary Mills, 46, who lives next door to the family, was cutting flowers Sunday when she heard popping noises, saw smoke and called 911.

A friend of the Mills family was in the garage, saw the smoke and ran next door where he knocked on what was a locked door that no one answered.

Firefighters quickly arrived at the Live Oak house that the Ontiveros girls looked at Monday, including the aquarium for Slamii the turtle, whose new, temporary home was in Bob Ontiveros' van.

Contact Appeal reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.