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[Admiral Obvious]

I'm an evacuee of the most recent "camp fire" that happened to burn through my town in the period of under an hour, and is still burning today.

I'm really posting this because I don't really do social media, but I've been with DF for a long time. I really don't know what to do. I feel like I can trust the advice here though.

I'm at the evac shelter here, but I'm incredibly depressed. Mostly because we ended up leaving one of our pets at home, and I'm almost certain that our house is gone, and they couldn't get out (they hid in one of the rooms of the house as flames were bearing down on us).

Has anyone else been through something like this? It feels like I lost everything. Any advice at all would help.

[Doomblade187]

I'm glad to hear you made it out. I don't know much of what do do. Never been in a fire. But I do know that it helps to stay with friends or family for a bit. Provides something stable, takes your mind off of the loss hopefully. Do you have anyone nearby or in a neighboring state?

[Admiral Obvious]

Right now, no. Believe it or not, my friends in southern California are dealing with the exact same thing I am, but in a different fire. Other than that, all of my family is affected directly from the fire, we had 3 houses in the area.

[Imic]

Well, I can’t say I’ve ever beenin that situation before, but for what it’s worth, I wish you luck for the future. I hope that things work themselves out for you.

[Cathar]

Call your insurence asap. It is a natural disaster, so you will likely be refunded a lot, but as soon as you can muster the strengh to do it, call them and ask them if they will pay for the inspector to check the damage caused by the fire. If they don't, ask them who to hire and advices going forward.

You will need to contact everyone with which you need to have communication with, since your physical mail is now unreachable. This includes your bank, aforementionned insurrence, workplace, and school if you have children.

Get in contact with everyone you know, loved ones, neighbours, etc. They are suffering from the same distress than you are, and knowing you and them are both safe will be a source of comfort for both.

I haven't been in that situation, but I feel for you and wish you the best.

Sound advices

[nenjin]

My mom and I didn't lose our house to an uncontrollable disaster like you guys did, but we did have a house fire. It wasn't even a total loss but the restoration of the house cost about $50k. We had to move in to a hotel for about 2 months while the work was done by a professional restoration company. Sorry, don't have any tangible advice for you, just sharing my experience with house fires.

[Admiral Obvious]

Thanks for the advice guys. It's been helping a bit.

I just found out today that the house burned completely down to the foundation today, so it's been tough.

An old friend of my mom has found us a trailer to live in. It helps, I guess, but I'm still having a hard time.

[Doomblade187]

Thanks for the advice guys. It's been helping a bit.

I just found out today that the house burned completely down to the foundation today, so it's been tough.

An old friend of my mom has found us a trailer to live in. It helps, I guess, but I'm still having a hard time.

Now you know, at least. Now you can throw yourself into rebuilding.

Also, a note: we have a few bay12 members who recently survived other natural disasters, namely the hurricane in Florida. I suggest reaching out to them, as they may provide a better listening ear than people like me.

[Urist McSpike]

Sorry to hear about your situation.

You should check the comments in this Reddit post for useful information.  Links to resources, reminders to shut off utilities, etc.  Here is another great Reddit comment, about insurance claims.