Paso Robles man lost his home in an RV fire. Then came a life-changing gift
Just a week ago, Billy Tosch thought he’d lost everything when a sudden fire reduced the RV he called home to a blackened frame and ash.
Little did Tosch know, however, his fortunes would completely change in a matter of days, thanks to the kindness of strangers from throughout San Luis Obispo County brought together by social media and a Tribune story.
On Friday, the good will all came together in a touching moment, when Tosch received a replacement RV from a Nipomo resident.
The donation of a fully outfitted and working home on wheels brought Tosch to tears.
“I think it’s the most beautiful thing in the world, I really do,” Tosch said. “I thought I lost everything. I’ll have this the rest of my life. This is my home.”
Social media helps bring together Good Samaritans
On the evening of Feb. 26, Tosch’s previous RV, his home of two years, caught fire and burned to rubble before his eyes in a matter of minutes.
The vehicle was parked in Paso Robles in the Walmart parking lot on Niblick Road when flames sparked in the front seat. Tosch was taking his dog, Sadie, for a walk at the time, and he smelled smoke when he returned.
Tosch tried to put out the fire himself, before he was forced to crawl to safety as flames engulfed the vehicle. The Fire Department responded and tried to save the RV, but the fire destroyed the vehicle and nearly everything Tosch owned.
“I had the shirt on my back, literally, just what I had on,” he said on Friday. “And I didn’t even have time to grab my guitar.”
Shortly after the fire, social media united a community of people determined to help Tosch.
Elizabeth Denny, who lives in Los Osos and works in Paso Robles, drove by the fire that Friday evening and later started a GoFundMe page titled “Help Billy Tosch get a new RV!” She shared it on Facebook, including in her Positive Change group and in the SLO County News group.
“I started that, and it just took off like wildfire,” Denny said on Friday during the RV handoff in Nipomo. The GoFundMe raised $3,500 in less than 48 hours, she said. Donors also provided Tosch with clothes, dog food for Sadie and cleaning supplies.
Immediately after the fire, Denny worked together with Misty Flint of Paso Robles, who saw Tosch’s story on Facebook, to find a place for him to stay. After losing his RV, Tosch was camping out near Walmart, and Flint helped secure him a hotel room for a couple of nights until he was able to stay with a friend.
“I was just worried about him being out in the cold, him losing everything,” Flint said.
Nipomo man gives Tosch a new home
Denny, Flint and the hundreds of people who donated to the GoFundMe were able to collect money and supplies to help Tosch get back on his feet, but he still needed a place to live.
Enter Hugh Robinson of Nipomo, who had a 1992 RV in storage that he wanted to give to Tosch.
After reading The Tribune’s story, Robinson reached out to the newspaper, which connected him to Denny and Flint.
Robinson donated about $440 in repairs to get the RV up and running, although it remains in remarkably good shape, complete with kitchen appliances, a queen-size bed and a diesel engine.
After retiring in the early 1990s, Robinson said he and his late wife traveled many miles in the RV, making cross-country drives from their home base in Oregon all the way to the East Coast to visit family.
Now in his 90s, Robinson said he likely shouldn’t be driving the RV anymore, anyways.
“I’m glad Billy will get good use out of it,” he said.
A new RV and a fresh start
On Friday, Flint gave Tosch a ride from Paso Robles to Nipomo to pick up his new home.
Tosch was visibly moved by Robinson’s gesture and all the support he’s gotten, his eyes repeatedly welling with tears. He called Robinson “a beautiful man” and said he plans to drive the RV to Austin, Texas, to visit his mother.
Denny plans to give Tosch a gift card with the $3,889 in donations he received, which will come out to a little more than $3,700, minus fees.
“Everything has been replaced by the community. Just everything — my clothes, my guitar, my home,” Tosch said. “This home is prettier and cleaner and better than the RV I had. This has a diesel engine. I’ve been wanting to see my mom for quite a while, and I don’t think my (old) RV would’ve made it.”
“This is like — God had a plan, or something,” he added. “I just thank God every day for everything that happens.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 5:55 PM.
