Help the Holbrook Family

Thursday morning we evacuated from the Butte County Camp Fire. We had to race to pack anything we could fit into our vehicles. We also had a fair amount of animals to consider, 4 dogs, 2 cats, and my cockatiel kiwi. We were shoving things in plastic bags as fast as we could, frantically filling all three of our vehicles with gas and preparing to flee for our lives. As we were packing any belongings we could carry a huge smoke cloud lurks in the not so far distance. I remember feeling sheer panic and I could feel my heart racing as we ran about the house trying to decide what was important and what was not. We had to leave behind several  family heirlooms and some of my moms precious jewelry. As we raced to the car we discussed where we were going to go and who would go first in our 3 vehicle family caravan. We tried to go down to Chico on Skyway, the main road in and out of our little town, Magalia, Ca.  We saw flames starting to come over Sawmillpeak, I was in complete shock and already in tears and scared for my life. We hit a bunch of traffic and so man going back up the other way told us to turn around the only way to get out was to go up into the mountains higher until we reached Butte Meadows and could drop down Hwy 32 to Chico. We turned around along with many others and continued our long journey back up Skyway, as we went up you could see every single gas station had lines of people blocks long waiting to fill up, we finally make our way to Stirling City, a small community above Magalia and Desabla. We stop in an empty parking lot and find the fire station. At the fire station we ask a firefighter what we should do and if we really should go to butte meadows, he tells us yes to follow everyone else you have to get out. Our truck didn’t  have enough gas to make the journey, we grabbed as many bags as we could from the truck and shoved even more into our two other vehicles. We had to leave it there in stirling city as well as some more of our belongings. We start our 4&1/2 hour journey to Chico. We continued up the winding narrow roads to butte meadows. I remember just trying to concentrate on driving and trying not to cry from fear, frustration, & anxiety about what was going to happen next. As we started our decent down 32 after reaching Butte Meadows you could see the flames on the ridge next to us, there was something bitter seeing all the people taking pictures of the flames that were consuming my home, and my town. I never though we would go through something like this and I never could have imagined how it feels. It is truly terrifying to not know what lies in your future.  We are devestated by loss and asking for help, any amount helps us to rebuild our homes and our lives. Thank you.