Help Julius' Family Rebuild After Devastating Fire

I'm Amy Arndt, Julius' sister. I live in Tyler, Texas, and I'm creating this GoFundMe because Julius, his wife Sarah, and their 9-year-old son Cooper lost everything on Wednesday in the fire in Pacific Palisades.

I was an exchange student in Berlin in 1991. Julius' mother Karin took me in when I desperately needed a new host family. Karin selflessly gave up her bedroom, sleeping on the couch in the living room so I could have my own space. Julius was a young boy at the time, just a bit older than Cooper is now. They were my family.

In 2013, Julius moved to Los Angeles with his lovely wife, Sarah. Their son Cooper was born a few years later. They fell in love with Pacific Palisades ten years ago, and have lived there ever since.

On Wednesday, Julius and his family were forced to flee their home after noticing a fire near Cooper's school. They picked Cooper up out of precaution and evacuated shortly after because the fire was moving quickly. They had so little time to prepare that all they could do was grab a bag with their passports and Cooper's favorite stuffed animal.

The fire destroyed their entire home, their beloved surfer van, and all of their possessions. Cooper attended a wonderful school that was also lost in the fire. Most of Cooper's friends' families have lost their homes. They have described it as an apocalyptic scene. Everything they knew just two days ago is gone.

When my husband Tim was dying of cancer last January, Julius, Sarah, and Cooper drove to Austin from LA to be with Tim just weeks before he died. Now, I want to do everything I can to help give back to Julius and his family, who have given so much to me. The best way I know how is to reach out to my incredible community and ask for help, this time for a family who has lost everything.

Worse, though Julius and Sarah are here legally on work visas and their son Cooper is a US citizen, they will not be able to receive U.S. federal assistance due to their status as German citizens. Their renter's insurance will hardly cover living costs for a few weeks.

If you have the means, please give generously to this precious family that I love so very much so that they can start to get back on their feet - they need money for housing and food and the basics for now, but they are starting completely over. Thank you for any help you can offer.

Also: If anyone in the Los Angeles area has a place for the family to stay, preferably a separate living quarter such as a garage apartment or nanny flat, please message me. They are doing their best to provide a sense of normalcy for their young son, though nothing is normal now..

Thank you.