Urgent Aid for LA Eaton Fire-Affected Chow Family

My name is Thomas Chow, I'm 40 years old, and I live in Altadena, on Mendocino St near Fair Oak Blvd. I live with my wife, my 76-year-old father, my widowed sister, and her 10-year-old twins.

The Eaton fire just took our home with everything in it, including what I need to make a living. On the night of the fire, the evac alert came at around 3:30 am. Our area went from no warning to mandatory. We managed to escape with some important documents, my computer, our wallets, and our phones, nothing else. We are still in shock and still don't know how life is going to continue.

As mentioned, my father is 76. He lost everything, including important items with memories of my mother, who he had been married to for almost 50 years and passed away 2 years ago.

My sister's a widow whose husband died of cancer in 2019. Like the rest of us, the fire took everything from her; all she has left now are her boys.

All of the twins' school materials are gone. They've lost all items related to their father, who passed from cancer when they were 4.

Luckily, my wife is out of the country visiting her family, so she's out of harm's way. But the hardest part was probably telling her I failed to protect anything and telling her she lost everything she ever held dear while she's gone, including our marriage certificate, all our photos, and more.

So right now is probably the time to seek help. At this point, I don't even know how much it will take to get our lives back in order, but anything helps as we navigate this catastrophe and restart our lives. Please help, it will be really appreciated, thank you very much.