This summer, California experienced
some of the worst wildfires we have ever seen.
Over 1 million acres burned, and thousands of homes
were destroyed.
Firefighters and volunteers have been battling the flames
tirelessly all summer long.
These heroes put their lives on the line every single day.
And I want to help when I can.
There's a couple in the audience today
who lost their home this summer.
Here's a little more of that.
Hi, I'm Eric.
And I'm Hope.
We've been together eight years, and we
live in Redding, California.
I'm an engineer with Cal Fire, and this is my ninth fire
season.
I grew up with my father being a firefighter,
and I fell in love with it.
When the car fire started, I was far away
working on the Ferguson fire in Yosemite.
Deadly wildfires are raging in California.
A car fire burned dozens of homes in the Redding area,
north of Sacramento.
20,000 people were ordered to evacuate overnight.
20 people are now reported missing.
We're talking about more than 3,000 firefighters
on this fire.
These men and women are working 24 on, 24 off.
They are exhausted.
I asked Eric--
I was like, so, should I be worried or anything?
I kind of scoffed at it and was like, oh, no, we'll be fine.
The fire's in Whiskeytown.
We live in city limits.
And I wasn't worried about it at all.
Then at one point, I got a text from my friend
who was on the fire, and the fire was just ripping.
And at that point, I went from, everything
is going to be OK, to, we're in some trouble.
And I look outside, and there are cars racing out
of my neighborhood.
That's when I started to really panic.
I felt like I could die.
I help people for a living, and not
being able to help the ones that are closest to me
is a bad feeling.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
After I get out of the neighborhood,
there's feeling of, oh, my God, my house is gone.
There was no way my house could have made it through that.
I had seen the flames coming straight towards it.
(SINGING) I don't want [INAUDIBLE]..
It was heartbreaking, because the home that we
created together is gone, and there's
nothing we can do about it.
I'm most grateful for the people that I have in my life--
Hope, our parents, my work, the community,
everyone that's reached out.
It's been unbelievable.
I would say the best thing out of it
is just realigning your priorities
and what's important to you, because you get so wrapped up
in all of your things.
And for me, it's about what's important,
and those are the people in your life, not the things.
Eric and Hope, come on down.
[APPLAUSE]
[INAUDIBLE]
Oh, my God, [INAUDIBLE].
Hi, Hope!
Hi.
First of all, I say it all the time.
I love firefighters.
I love firefighters, and we had a very bad fire
up in Santa Barbara County, as you know.
And firefighters saved my home, and I am forever grateful.
But I loved firefighters way before it got to my home.
Have you ever seen a fire season--
there's no more season anymore.
I mean, have you ever seen anything like this before?
A season like this?
Like you guys saw, this is my ninth season,
and I definitely haven't seen anything
like this, especially this early in the season.
It's been really significant, the fire activity, the deaths.
And how many hours on average were you working a day?
So we do 24 on, 24 off.
And I had been doing that for about two weeks
when I was on the Ferguson.
Wow.
I can't imagine being exhausted, carrying that heavy equipment,
being around-- and how hot that is.
And you were at home.
Like you said, you got out of the home,
but then you were in traffic trying to get out,
and you're thinking, can I even make it out of here?
Yeah, we were stuck in traffic for a good 15,
20 minutes with the flames coming behind us.
It was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced.
I can't even imagine.
So you don't have a home anymore.
Where are you staying right now?
So we are staying between my parents' house and his parents'
house.
Back and forth.
Yes.
So that you're not burdening one family.
You're just taking--
Exactly.
Or you don't want to be there.
Which is it?
[LAUGHS]
Well, no.
They've been amazing, and they've been great.
They say we can stay as long as we want to.
And so it's not on them.
It's us.
Right.
So you're going to rebuild in that same spot,
and your insurance is going to pay for that, I understand.
But you had just done some renovations right before,
and you hadn't had your house appraised.
Correct.
Yeah, we bought the house in 2015,
and we've been working on it constantly since this winter,
though.
We did just completely remodel the inside.
We did all the work ourselves.
It was a lot of fun looking up on YouTube.
Hope's really into interior design, so she was the brains,
and I was the one carrying it out.
But unfortunately, we didn't get it appraised before we lost it.
So your friends started a GoFundMe page,
which is at $12,000.
You're trying to get to $20,000, right?
So your friends have raised $12,000, which is great.
But as I say, I want to help when I can.
I love firefighters, and it's just devastating
what happened to you.
So our friends at Shutterfly care about supporting people
in need.
They want to round that up to $50,000
[APPLAUSE]
Oh, my God.
So please go to our website to find out
how you can help those affected by the wildfires
in California, because a lot of people need help.