Help Joel and His Family After Devastating Fire

Joel Brent is one of the kindest people I've ever worked with on top of being an amazingly talented colleague. I know that many of you feel the same and are looking for ways to support him as he and his family deal with the loss of their family home and nearly everything they own.

On September 10th, Joel's home in Sebastopol, where he lives with his wife and children, burned to the ground. There's an ongoing investigation, but it looks like an electrical fire started near the breaker box and potentially ignited a nearby propane tank. It sounds like Joel's family was incredibly lucky that they all made it out.

I spoke with Joel today and it's a total loss. They've lost their home, all of their personal belongings, and their minivan. Two other cars survived, but the keys melted in the fire so they are currently unusable making getting around to deal with this situation even more difficult. When I spoke with Joel, he was going through the debris left of his home and managed to save only 2 garbage bags of personal belongings.

His family is currently living in a hotel while the insurance company looks for long term housing. They made it out of the house with the clothes on their backs and not much else. I let him know that many people have reached out to ask how they can help and got his permission to start this GoFundMe. Any amount helps, no matter how small, and all money donated will go to support Joel and his family as they navigate this incredibly heartbreaking situation.