Local companies help woman repair fire-damaged home after News 4 story, more help still needed
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Two companies teamed up to repair the electrical system in an Oklahoma City woman’s fire-damaged house after the initial company she paid $60k to make the repairs—abandoned the job.
On top of that, the electricians with the new companies helping her discovered the initial company she hired did poor work — and covered up fire damage, instead of repairing it.
News 4 first reported about Cheryl McIntire and the nightmare of a year she’s been living, earlier this month.
“I keep thinking I’ll wake up, know, but when I wake up, it’s reality,” McIntire told News 4 on September 2. “I sure need help.”
McIntire and her daughter barely escaped with their lives when the Oklahoma City house she’s owned for more than 50 years caught fire in March.
With $60,000 in insurance money, she hired Salvador Luna with ‘Luna’s Construction’ to fix everything and make her home like new. She paid him in full up front.
But tragedy hit again.
Within a span of a couple months, her two brothers and daughter passed away.
During that time, Luna made almost no repairs to her home and stopped answering her calls.
“I haven’t had time to grieve,” McIntire told News 4 in August. “I want to be in my house so I can grieve. I can’t do it.”
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News 4 tried getting ahold of Luna earlier this month, but never got an answer.
A few days after News 4’s report aired, McIntire ran out of money her insurance company had given her to find a temporary place to stay.
She told News 4, if she could just get electricity restored to her home, she could move back in while the rest of the cosmetic repairs are made.
After News 4’s report aired, McIntire got an idea.
“I called around to some electricians and left my story with them,” she told News 4 on Wednesday.
On the other end of one of those phone calls was Kevin Locklear, owner of Norman-based Tri-L Electric.
“At first it was kind of unbelievable,” Locklear told News 4. “So I did exactly what she asked me to do, which was… I went to In Your Corner on Channel 4 and watched the story, listened to the story and really couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”
He immediately called his supplier, Dru Manek, with City Electric Supply.
“It’s just unimaginable for something to happen like that,” Manek told News 4.
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Together, the two men and their companies offered to make all the necessary repairs to get McIntire’s electricity back on — at no charge to her.
“I mean, it lifted a lot off of me,” McIntire said.
When Locklear stopped by to take a look at the minimal work Luna had done, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“I was not expecting it to be as bad as it was,” Locklear said.
He found Luna had done nothing to code — installing completely wrong equipment, not wiring smoke detectors and even running wires completely exposed through her attic.
“There’s open supplies.. I mean, the entire attic, all the wire was run single runs into the attic and just spliced open, laying on the ceiling line,” Locklear said. “At any point if they were to insulate it, a small arc could have set that insulation off and she’d be right back in the same boat or worse.”
They had to rip everything out and start from scratch.
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That included removing sections of drywall Luna had installed.
In doing so, they discovered Luna had not replaced most, if any, of the charred wood behind the drywall, but covered it up instead.
In the attic, they found numerous structural joists and roof decking boards with severe fire damage, even though McIntire says Luna claimed he replaced them.
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything quite to this level,” Locklear said.
Locklear is only licensed to do electrical work. He hopes a licensed contractor out there can help McIntire get the rest of it fixed properly.
As for McIntire, she’s shocked to know someone she trusted to make her home safe again, had actually made it less safe.
“It’s scary. Yeah, it’s really scary,” McIntire said. “It scares me for other people to hire him.”
But the generosity of Locklear, Manek and their companies restores some of her faith.
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“I mean, praise the Lord they helped me, you know, I don’t know what I would have done without them,” she said. “Thank you. And I love you all so much for helping me so much.”
She’s confident that, soon, she can put her nightmare to rest.
“I think I’ll feel a whole lot of relief, you know, being able to come home,” McIntire said. “All I want to do is come home. I miss my house. I miss my neighbors.”
McIntire’s family set up a GoFundMe to help with the rest of her expenses.
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