CampFire 1st Responder- Total Loss
Donation protected
My name is Krystal and I am a close friend to two outstanding Army Veterans, Justin and Shiana Chamness, who went through a life changing tragedy, losing their home and all of their possessions in the Paradise fires.
Justin is now a police officer with the Paradise PD and Shi is still serving as a Soldier and they have 2 infant children,(ages 3 and 9 months). Despite losing everything they had, Justin is continuing to work daily with other first responders fighting the fires and directing people to safety. While Shi is displaced from her husband and is staying with their children at her mother-in-law’s house in Yuba City.
Shi only had enough time to grab two outfits for each of the children before she had to evacuate. They are going to need new clothes for themselves and the kids, and will eventually have to find a place to live and completely refurnish everything, at that point donated items will be greatly appreciated. However, right now what they most desperately need is financial help to be able to start purchasing daily items and begin the long and painful process of rebuilding. Anything you can contribute to help would be a blessing
IN HER WORDS:
(Photos at the end)
"Thursday was a nightmare come to life. My husband and I woke up about 0730 and he went outside to let the dog out. He came back in and told me, “get the kids ready to go”. So I mosey on up, put contacts in and start getting myself dressed. He leaves for work and calls 5 minutes later, “Have you left? Get the kids and get out now!” I realize that he is serious so I tell my 3 year old daughter to get dressed as I rush to get our 9 month old son ready. I finally go outside to throw my purse in the truck and the sky is black, huge clouds of smoke filled the air around us. I realize that we are actually in danger and throw the kids and our dog in the truck.
The drive out of town begins, we get out of our neighborhood and the traffic immediately starts backing up. I finally get to The Depot in Magalia and get gridlocked. We move one car space every minute and the only reason we are moving that much is because the people in front of me are turning around. The canyon on my left was on fire, so I started to panic a little. I commit to keep going thinking that the fire isn’t ahead of us but to the side. As I get to Clark from Skyway and see a huge fire ahead on the right. They are no longer letting us drive on Skyway and we get directed down Clark. Meanwhile our 3 year old daughter is yelling and crying at me to “Get away from the big fire Mommy!” I go down Clark and it’s still gridlocked. It’s been an hour and a half and I haven’t made it past Clark Road. Something that’s usually less than a 10 minute drive.
About half a mile down Clark people start turning around again, screaming at us that there is another huge fire down Clark! So if there is a huge fire on Skyway, a huge fire up north towards Magalia, one down Clark, and Pentz is on fire... where do we go!? We are surrounded by fire. Ash falls in the car as I try to get information from people coming from opposite directions as me.
So I get my husband back on the phone as he is in his patrol car trying to help ungridlock Paradise. Because the fire is spreading so fast, he keeps trying to reroute me because everywhere is catching on fire and nowhere is safe anymore. After 25 minutes of not moving even a single car space, with a giant fire just ahead of us, he asks me if I can see the bike path. I see it, but it’s a ways back and I’m in a huge truck... he tells me “I don’t care what you have to do, get on the bike path and just go”. So I jump the curb, and drive across some lawns and get to the bike path. Another truck comes off of the bike path coming towards me, so I roll down my window and ask him why he is coming this way instead of getting out of town?? He proceeds to tell me that the bike path is on fire and I ask if I should go down it or not and he replies with “well you might have a 50/50 shot of making it if you drive really fast”. So I have this guy telling me that and my husband telling me to just drive it out of town. After a quick second I decide to just go for it. This bike path is barely as wide as my truck but I floor it. The fire he was talking about is now in sight and I go into full blown panic mode. It’s on both sides and in the middle of the bike path. Houses 10 feet away to my left were fully engulfed in flames and trees looked like they were ready to fall. I keep going. I put my faith in God and my husband that I was supposed to be there and that everything was going to be okay. The smoke was so thick that I couldn’t even see the hood of my car, I panic and almost decide to put it in reverse and go back because if I go off the bike path, I’ll be directly in fire and I couldn’t see the bike path. So I had literally zero room for error, but I decide to keep going. Blue and red flashing lights break through the smoke, “It’s my husband” I thought. The hood of my car isn’t in view but I could see his lights! So I followed these lights until I see the park at the end of Skyway. He got me past the gridlocked part of Paradise, back onto Skyway, just to be surrounded by even more fire. A typical 4 lane road is down to one because the fire was on the other 3 lanes. Our daughter was in the back crying hysterically saying “Mommy fire is owwie, get away from big fire!” Repeatedly. I reassure her we were going to be alright and ask her if she wants to sing a song with me. Her favorite song is Never Enough from the Greatest Showman so I put that on and she starts singing with me. Fully engulfed trees were falling around us as I drove over and through the fire to get out the other side. After about 2 1/2 hours of trying to get out of town, we start making our way to Chico and I realize we are finally safe.
So many moments I didn’t think we were going to make it, but God is good and we are all safe and alive today. The next day the fire had spread up to Magalia and took over our neighborhood. Our house and our Jeep burned completely to the ground with every personal item we owned and every sentimental thing we had. I had only enough time to grab a couple of things for the kids. My wedding dress, wedding ring, our laptop with photos, photo albums, going home outfits... everything is gone."
.
Justin is now a police officer with the Paradise PD and Shi is still serving as a Soldier and they have 2 infant children,(ages 3 and 9 months). Despite losing everything they had, Justin is continuing to work daily with other first responders fighting the fires and directing people to safety. While Shi is displaced from her husband and is staying with their children at her mother-in-law’s house in Yuba City.
Shi only had enough time to grab two outfits for each of the children before she had to evacuate. They are going to need new clothes for themselves and the kids, and will eventually have to find a place to live and completely refurnish everything, at that point donated items will be greatly appreciated. However, right now what they most desperately need is financial help to be able to start purchasing daily items and begin the long and painful process of rebuilding. Anything you can contribute to help would be a blessing
IN HER WORDS:
(Photos at the end)
"Thursday was a nightmare come to life. My husband and I woke up about 0730 and he went outside to let the dog out. He came back in and told me, “get the kids ready to go”. So I mosey on up, put contacts in and start getting myself dressed. He leaves for work and calls 5 minutes later, “Have you left? Get the kids and get out now!” I realize that he is serious so I tell my 3 year old daughter to get dressed as I rush to get our 9 month old son ready. I finally go outside to throw my purse in the truck and the sky is black, huge clouds of smoke filled the air around us. I realize that we are actually in danger and throw the kids and our dog in the truck.
The drive out of town begins, we get out of our neighborhood and the traffic immediately starts backing up. I finally get to The Depot in Magalia and get gridlocked. We move one car space every minute and the only reason we are moving that much is because the people in front of me are turning around. The canyon on my left was on fire, so I started to panic a little. I commit to keep going thinking that the fire isn’t ahead of us but to the side. As I get to Clark from Skyway and see a huge fire ahead on the right. They are no longer letting us drive on Skyway and we get directed down Clark. Meanwhile our 3 year old daughter is yelling and crying at me to “Get away from the big fire Mommy!” I go down Clark and it’s still gridlocked. It’s been an hour and a half and I haven’t made it past Clark Road. Something that’s usually less than a 10 minute drive.
About half a mile down Clark people start turning around again, screaming at us that there is another huge fire down Clark! So if there is a huge fire on Skyway, a huge fire up north towards Magalia, one down Clark, and Pentz is on fire... where do we go!? We are surrounded by fire. Ash falls in the car as I try to get information from people coming from opposite directions as me.
So I get my husband back on the phone as he is in his patrol car trying to help ungridlock Paradise. Because the fire is spreading so fast, he keeps trying to reroute me because everywhere is catching on fire and nowhere is safe anymore. After 25 minutes of not moving even a single car space, with a giant fire just ahead of us, he asks me if I can see the bike path. I see it, but it’s a ways back and I’m in a huge truck... he tells me “I don’t care what you have to do, get on the bike path and just go”. So I jump the curb, and drive across some lawns and get to the bike path. Another truck comes off of the bike path coming towards me, so I roll down my window and ask him why he is coming this way instead of getting out of town?? He proceeds to tell me that the bike path is on fire and I ask if I should go down it or not and he replies with “well you might have a 50/50 shot of making it if you drive really fast”. So I have this guy telling me that and my husband telling me to just drive it out of town. After a quick second I decide to just go for it. This bike path is barely as wide as my truck but I floor it. The fire he was talking about is now in sight and I go into full blown panic mode. It’s on both sides and in the middle of the bike path. Houses 10 feet away to my left were fully engulfed in flames and trees looked like they were ready to fall. I keep going. I put my faith in God and my husband that I was supposed to be there and that everything was going to be okay. The smoke was so thick that I couldn’t even see the hood of my car, I panic and almost decide to put it in reverse and go back because if I go off the bike path, I’ll be directly in fire and I couldn’t see the bike path. So I had literally zero room for error, but I decide to keep going. Blue and red flashing lights break through the smoke, “It’s my husband” I thought. The hood of my car isn’t in view but I could see his lights! So I followed these lights until I see the park at the end of Skyway. He got me past the gridlocked part of Paradise, back onto Skyway, just to be surrounded by even more fire. A typical 4 lane road is down to one because the fire was on the other 3 lanes. Our daughter was in the back crying hysterically saying “Mommy fire is owwie, get away from big fire!” Repeatedly. I reassure her we were going to be alright and ask her if she wants to sing a song with me. Her favorite song is Never Enough from the Greatest Showman so I put that on and she starts singing with me. Fully engulfed trees were falling around us as I drove over and through the fire to get out the other side. After about 2 1/2 hours of trying to get out of town, we start making our way to Chico and I realize we are finally safe.
So many moments I didn’t think we were going to make it, but God is good and we are all safe and alive today. The next day the fire had spread up to Magalia and took over our neighborhood. Our house and our Jeep burned completely to the ground with every personal item we owned and every sentimental thing we had. I had only enough time to grab a couple of things for the kids. My wedding dress, wedding ring, our laptop with photos, photo albums, going home outfits... everything is gone."
.Co-organisers (2)
Krystal Fuller
Organiser
Magalia, CA
Shiana Chamness
Beneficiary
Nikki Siebern
Co-organiser