Friends of special education teacher, Shela West, whose home was destroyed by fire on June 26, have established a fund for her at Santa Barbara Bank & Trust. All branches are accepting donations.

Shela West had retirement in her sights. She sold her motor home over the weekend before the fire, and on June 26th the 61-year-old planned to turn in her going-away papers to the county education office, where she worked with special needs children for six years. Then everything she owned went up in flames. Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the two-alarm blaze that destroyed the double-wide mobile home and damaged two others early June 26th at Rancho Santa Barbara, 333 Old Mill Road in Goleta.

A day after she lost everything to a fire, Shela discovered she must contend with what may be an expensive and arduous cleanup of the structure she called home at the Rancho Santa Barbara mobile home park. Authorities have posted do not enter signs at the site of her destroyed double-wide mobile home off Old Mill Road in Goleta as they try to determine the cause of the two-alarm blaze earlier this week. At the same time, there's the prospect the ruins may contain asbestos, which involves a painstaking removal process that ensures none of the potentially harmful material becomes airborne.