Where do you go when your apartment burns down, both vehicles go up in flames and all you have left is what you have on?

That’s the situation that Kim and Randy Rankin found themselves in when fire destroyed the Garnet Way fourplex in the Auburn Greens subdivision last week.

Randy Rankin, a new construction plumber by trade, last worked in October 2007. His wife Kim hopes to get hired by Best Buy, where she recently interviewed. If that does not happen, she’s relying on her software skills to land her an office job in the area.

With all of their savings gone, the couple visited the Placer County Department of Health and Human Services to find out what their options are. They found they could get a one-time offer of $830 to pay for the first month’s rent for an apartment. In order to qualify, Randy Rankin said you can’t have more than $50.

“We were told there was emergency housing, but none exists,” Randy Rankin said after visiting the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Red Cross was available to put up fire victims in a local motel, but only for three nights. The fire displaced at least 10 Auburn Greens residents.

The couple’s 1978 El Camino, in the process of being restored, and a 1998 Mitsubishi were both totaled by the fire. With only liability insurance on both vehicles, they were not able to receive any reimbursement from their insurance company.

“Housing and wheels are our greatest needs,” Kim Rankin said. “If it wasn’t for Dotti (Dorothy Flanagan) I’d still be standing there.”

Dorothy McAvoy Flanagan, who lives in a neighborhood off Bell Road, offered to let the Rankins stay temporarily at her place in a recreational vehicle. Flanagan met the Rankins during a karaoke session at Lou La Bonte’s Restaurant on Lincoln Way and has known them for about five years. Randy Rankin put up her Christmas tree lights as part of his Handy Randy’s general maintenance and repair business.

“I was a new construction plumber, but lost all of my tools in the fire,” Randy Rankin said.

Despite his loss, he said he is willing to work. His business card lists experience in plumbing, electrical and irrigation.

“I try to do everything like I was doing it for myself,” he said

Even though the Rankins lost all of their material possessions in the fire, their cat Artie survived, and they found him Monday.

“We found the cat sitting on top of the burned out El Camino waiting to come home,” Randy Rankin said. “He’s an inside cat and there are some tough cats out there.”

When it comes to helping out the Rankins, Marianne Swishly and Kim Brown, co-owners of the Brown Bag catering business in Downtown Auburn, have taken on the responsibility of fielding phone calls for any individual, group or business, which wishes to help out.

The Randy and Kim Rankin Fire Victim Account has been set up at Bank of the West on Lincoln Way in Auburn and is accepting donations for the couple.

“I just felt in my heart that I wanted to do this,” Brown said. “I’m just grateful that I have a business here in Auburn.”

The Journal’s Bruce Warren can be reached at brucew@goldcountrymedia.com, or comment at AuburnJournal.com.

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What: Randy and Kim Rankin Fire Victim Account

Where: Bank of the West, Lincoln Way, Auburn

Contact: Kim Brown or Marianne Swishly, (530) 888-6065

Handy Randy’s: For repairs call (530) 368-2520