Colorado music family suffers Christmas fire loss and musical community steps in to help
At Mi Vida Strings in Westminster the Christmas season brings a busy time. More people looking for stringed instruments or help in repairing them. It was really a bad time for the Trujillo family to suffer a loss like a house fire.
"Nobody wants to go through this. Nobody ever believes or imagines you're going to go through this in your lifetime," said Eric Trujillo, owner and luthier at the shop.
The instrument store is known for the quality of its work. There are few people building custom stringed instruments like violins and basses in the Mountain West these days. Musicians come from all over to visit the store, some bringing instruments hundreds of years old for restoration.
"It's really an honor for people to bring treasures like this to us to be restored and bring them back to life," said Eric as he showed a violin he was working on, likely over 200 years old.
Jazz and classical musicians know the shop well and bring the Trujillos their work.
"We get to be part of family histories and legacies by restoring. Some of these instruments are hundreds of years old and it means so much to their family and we get to be part of that journey," Eric explained.
It's not a very profitable business, but a labor of love. The Trujillos, Eric and Michele, keep the shop going and keep their children going in a world of music. They play instruments and thrive on music. Eric Trujillo himself is a gifted saxophone player, who used to show up in the Denver's jazz clubs.
On Monday, 17-year-old Daniel came home from school and unlocked the door to find the house on Wagner Drive on fire.
"And turned the key and opened the door and only took one step into the house to realize you know it's just a wall of heat and smoke and it hits you in the face."
He remembers seeing a clock face, already melted. The heat and smoke soon drove him out. He called 911 and fire trucks showed up quickly. His sister, a few blocks away on the other side of the highway, saw and heard the trucks with no idea it was her home.
Firefighters poked holes and poured water inside the home. The walls are scorched and their belongings smoke infused. It's not close to livable. The family is now at a hotel.
The fire appears to have been in the home's aging electrical system.
As soon as word got out in the music community, people stepped in to help. At the Dazzle jazz club in Denver, they started an online fundraising campaign.
The Trujillos are moved.
"We just immediately felt lifted with people's love and care and kindness," said business owner Michele Trujillo. "They helped us with things we didn't even know we needed."
"For a long time we've helped lots of people and tried to find a humble way of being part of our community and helping through working on violins and instruments and being a small part of their journey in life and their music," said Eric Trujillo.
Now that community is giving back.
"To see the way the community has reached back out to us has been unbelievable," he explained. "And the completely radically different lifestyles and beliefs they come from, you couldn't believe it, but we all believe in the same thing together and they believe in us."
The fundraiser is called "Eric, Michelle, Daniel, Maiya, & Lanae Trujillo" and it's on GoFundMe.
