The Merrifield Family

“Please consider helping my niece Catherine Merrifield husband Mike and their 6 year old son Kyle. They lost their home in Paradise and are starting over in a fifth wheel in Chico. They did not have insurance… Thank You. This family includes a brother and sister in law of the Merrifield family with the last name of Peabody.”

The Sparks Family

“My family just recently moved back to the ridge from San Diego and we were able to find a beautiful home at the bottom of paradise. I will tell you something it was the first home that we have been in that actually felt like home. It was peaceful to say the least we had fruit trees a garden and plenty of room for the kids to play including our fur baby Bella. Some days I would just sit on the back deck in my hammock and just look around me. I knew it was home because all I could see was blue sky and trees. The air always smelled so fresh. That is one of the biggest things I had missed was the fresh air, you couldn’t get that in San Diego. My husband is a wildland firefighter and he works for the Butte fire center in Magalia. My husband has helped many people including saving their homes during fires like these. That is what he has done a quite some time now. He loves the satisfaction that comes with knowing he can help someone. That is the type of family we have always been. But on this fire unfortunately he could not save our own home. Which he said was worse than actually fighting fires. When we had left San Diego we had decided to move his father back up to the ridge with us and since the house we were getting had an in law suite it was perfect. Everything was just the way it should have been. I had just started a new job and I was loving every minute of it. This fire did not only take our home but it took my job and my father in laws job as well. Unfortunately we did not have renters insurance, which is strange since we have had it for every other house we had lived in, but we were a little preoccupied with moving back and trying to get settled in, we were just talking about adding it weeks before the fire. My mother passed away in 2013 and since then I have kept everything that she wanted me to keep with us, but we had no time to grab any of it. I have been patiently waiting for the authorities to lift the evacuation order so much husband and I can go and sift through the ashes to see if anything salvageable. If I could find one thing that I knew was my moms, even if it was damaged it would mean the world to me. The day we left our home I didn’t even think for one moment that I was not going to have anything to come home to. I have seen some pretty amazing things happen on this page and I am very blessed for the people who have helped us so far. All I am asking is for help while we look for work that way we can keep a roof over our heads, gas in the car so my husband can continue to work since he now has to commute over a hour each way and to be able to keep food in our fridge. My daughter and I are also going to be seeing a counselor to help with what we have seen and been through since the fire started.”