Oklahoma woman faces homelessness amid dispute with contractor

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A woman whose home was heavily damaged by a fire earlier this year says the contractor she paid $60k to make repairs took her money and never finished the work, and now the money her insurance gave her for temporary housing is almost gone.

To make matters worse, in the months following the fire, the woman’s two brothers and only child suddenly passed away on separate occasions.

Cheryl McIntire replays it all in her head just about every day.

“It was scary,” McIntire said. “And I’m really afraid of fire.”

It was the morning of March 17, when her worst fear became reality. The northeast Oklahoma City home she’d proudly owned for more than 50 years, was in flames.

“My daughter came running out of her room into my room and said ‘my bedroom’s on fire,’” McIntire said. “It was so smoky.”

She and her daughter, Niki, barely made it out alive. Unfortunately, one of their dogs did not make it out.

“[Niki] scorched the top of her hair and everything, trying to get the dog,” McIntire said. “I didn’t want my purse to burn. And so I came running back in the house past the firemen and grabbed my purse. And by the time I turned around to come back out, I had to feel my way out… I had to go to the hospital because I had too much smoke inhalation”

When she got out of the hospital, her insurance gave her money to repair or replace everything that had been damaged. They gave her more money to cover the costs of an Airbnb she planned to stay in while the repairs were underway.

She hired contractor Salvador luna with “Luna’s construction” to make the repairs.

“I did trust him that at first,” McIntire said.

She trusted him so much, she paid him around $60k up front.

“I gave it to him on good faith, you know,” she said.

She says Luna told her he’d have the house good as new in just a few months.

In the weeks and months following, she assumed he had gotten to work repairing the house, as she was busy dealing with more pressing matters.

“I lost my first brother, and then, um, about a half a month later, I lost my second brother,” McIntire said.

Both of her brothers passed away within just weeks of each other.

She barely had time to process their deaths before the next tragedy struck.

“Then a month later, I lost my daughter,” she said. “My only child.”

Her daughter, Niki, who saved her life by waking up the morning of the fire, passed suddenly in June.

A truly unimaginable series of tragedies.

“It’s just like I live it every day right now,” McIntire said. “I haven’t had time to grieve. I want to be in my house so I can grieve. I can’t do it.”

She can’t do it, because her house is still not close to livable.

“It’s bad,” she said. “Every time I look at it, I get sick.”

After almost six months and $60k, all Luna has done is replace the damaged walls. And McIntire even questions that work.

“Right here you can see the old burnt wood,” she said as she showed News 4 what was behind a layer of peeling paint on one of the walls Luna claimed to have repaired.

Beyond that, fire-damaged windows and siding on her home also still look just like they did back in March—covered in smoke and soot damage.

An area of siding on the back side of her house is still melted away, leaving the inside of the walls exposed to the elements.

She hasn’t heard from Luna in over a month.

News 4 called him on Monday, but did not get an answer.

McIntire says she can’t fathom how someone could treat a customer in her situation like this.

“He knew about my daughter and my brothers and everything,” she said. “And he still gouged me for money.”

McIntire’s grandson has helped try to finish the work. He installed new floors and fixtures in the home—things she already paid Luna to do.

But without someone to do the electrical work, OG&E can’t turn her power back on.

And now, the money she got to stay in that Airbnb has just about run out.

“I have to be out by 11:00 on the fifth,” McIntire said.

She’ll have nowhere stay.

“Oh, no, I sure need help,” she said.

Nowhere to grieve.

“But my daughter… I can’t explain how that feels,” she said.

Nowhere to put to rest her living nightmare of a year.

“I keep thinking I’ll wake up, you know,” McIntire said. “But when I wake up, it’s a reality.”

McIntire said she has tried to hire a lawyer but can’t afford one.

Her family set up a GoFundMe to help with her living expenses.

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