Camp Fire Paradise Lost

My name is Dustin Smith.

We lost our home from the Camp Fire.  Everything that we have worked so hard for burned away 11/9/18.

We left our home with only ourselves, our dogs, and our baby bag.

We are a family of 4 with 3 dogs.  My youngest son Rex is only 5 weeks old.  My step daughter Alexis is 8.  My wife is 30 and I am 29.

We have been building our life together for over 5 years starting from literally nothing.  Over the years we have slowly build up from living with roommates, to having our own apartment for 4 years to finally renting a house back in  May this year.  We have struggled over the years to scrimp and save and we finally had our own house with a yard.  It was beautiful.

We are in complete and utter shock over how brutal and quick our lives have fallen apart and we have no idea how we are going to come back from this.

I work in Paradise as Personal Attendant where I take care of developmentally disabled adults.  The company I work for has been great to us and I am very thankful for all they have done for us.  My managers and co-workers have been extremely supportive and I don't know where we would be without them.

With your help our first priority is to get any housing we can and then replace our children's lost clothes and needs. There are going to be alot of other immediate needs like food, clothes, and basic supplies.  We would also try to replace anything else we lost.

We are extremely grateful to be alive and God willing we will start again and persevere.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.