Tragedy Strikes Pleasantville Family Twice in One Day

Unimaginable. That's the first thing that came to mind when I heard about the family from Pleasantville that suffered a devastating house fire in the morning, and then had the father struck by a car that night and remains hospitalized on a ventilator.

Pleasantville Family Loses House in a Fire

The Pleasantville Fire Company called Tuesday's blaze on the 500 block of Wesley Avenue a 'defensive operation'.

That means by the time firefighters arrived and 5:45 am Tuesday and started to extinguish the fire, they realized they would not be able to contain the fire, and the best they could do was to make sure the fire didn't spread and that no one got hurt.

Everything in the house where Veronica Sanchez lived with her husband, Roberto "Peto" Vidanos, their two young children, and six other relatives was destroyed. No one was hurt.

Here is the Facebook comment from Pleasantville Fire.

Our first units arrived within minutes and found heavy fire showing from the side of a single-family home. Crews made an aggressive interior attack in an effort to stop the spread of the fire, but after a sustained period of interior operations and worsening conditions, command transitioned the incident to a defensive operation to ensure firefighter safety.

 

Father Hit By Car While Collecting Donated Items

Tuesday evening, while gathering donated items from the community, tragedy struck again.

Sanchez told 6ABC that her husband, Roberto "Peto" Vidanos, was crossing the street when he was hit by a driver.

"He was on the ground. He was hit really hard. His clothes fell off. He was just still. Once I got closer to him, I was trying to keep him up once the ambulance got here. His eyes kept rolling back."

Peto, who everyone calls Peto the barber, was rushed to the hospital, where he had surgery and remains on a ventilator.

"Two broken legs, a broken pelvis, a fractured spine, broken left arm," Sanchez said. "It's gonna be a long road to recovery for him."

Police and fire officials say both incidents remain under investigation.

The Angels in Motion Foundation is Handling Donations

"The community has come out strong. This is just since yesterday," said Laura Rowan with Angels in Motion Foundation, motioning to an overflowing pile. "It's amazing how much the community has jumped in to help."

To donate, you can drop off items to Angels in Motion located at 2 West Glendale Avenue in Pleasantville on Saturday from 12 pm to 3 pm and Monday through Wednesday from 10 am to 2 pm.