From Engagement to Fire to Community

Maria Witz is organizing this fundraiser.

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I am setting up this Go-Fund-Me page in support of my niece, Nicole, and her fiancée, Lete, whose rental house in Paradise, California (CA), burned to its foundation during the recent “Camp Fire”. Nicole, Lete, their 3 dogs and 1 cat were able to safely evacuate, but all their material possessions on the property were destroyed in the fire and unfortunately, were not insured.

The target fundraising amount is $20,000.

This will greatly help them purchase new furniture, clothes, pet supplies and other items needed for daily living, fix their car, as well identify and move into a new home.

A bit of backstory on Nicole and Lete. They celebrated their engagement on October 27, 2018, with plans to marry in 2019. Their engagement rings were lost in the fire. Both being northern CA long-time residents, they moved from Chico to Paradise to start their new journey together. They rented a 3-bedroom house in Paradise, off of Clark Road. Nicole recently graduated with her degree in Sociology with plans to start her career in the nonprofit sector supporting underprivileged and marginalized communities. Lete has worked as a California Fire Fighter for over a decade. She played a significant role in fighting the fires in northern CA over this past year, with 45 days on the recent Carr Fire. During this time period, she worked around the clock, spending many days and nights away from home. Both Lete and Nicole recognized this was a time to sacrifice and pull together with their community to support the people and environment of northern CA.

They had only been living in Paradise for 4 months when the recent Camp Fire hit. On Thursday, November 8th, at 8 am, Lete, being on her last day of leave from work, woke-up to her phone ringing. Once she opened her eyes, she noticed the sky was dark red. She ran to the front door and was met with heavy smoke and approaching flames. She immediately woke Nicole and they both moved as quickly as possible to save themselves, their pets and alert their neighbors, many of whom were still asleep. Lete lit a backfire behind their homes in an attempt to save lives and property. Nicole gathered their 3 dogs and 1 cat and packed as many belongings as she could in the car. About 1 hour after spotting the fire, they were in the car heading out of Paradise joining their neighbors in the heavy flow of traffic. It took them 1 hour to make it a single block from their home, and 3 hours to make it safely to Chico. The small two-lane road was clogged with 5 lanes of outbound traffic, with people driving on the sidewalks, or abandoning their cars altogether to go on foot.

Many were affected by the CA fires and need support. I am asking for your support for Nicole and Lete, who I know with our support will be stronger and in a better position to help others in their community. Lete will soon return to work to continue the fight against the raging California wildfires, and Nicole is in the process of making care packages for other victims and gathering resources to take to shelters throughout the area. Though they had just moved into Paradise, they quickly became a part of the community, where they knew some old friends and met many new wonderful people. Nicole was in training to become a volunteer at the local animal shelter and Lete helped out around the neighborhood with such things as helping their neighbor patch their roof in preparation for the winter weather. In fact, the night before the fire, Nicole and Lete gathered with friends helping to paint chairs for an upcoming charity Art Auction benefiting the local animal shelter, not realizing the next day their friends and themselves would be homeless.

Though the community is now spread out at different shelters and homes of friends and family, they are still a community. I know with confidence both Lete and Nicole will continue to be a part of the Paradise community and support all members as they move toward healing and rebuilding.

Thank you for your support. It will have a direct and positive impact for many.

Peace,

Maria

* In the below photo, Lete is setting a backfire, which is a technique used to contain oncoming fires