Firestorm Volunteering

Below are some videos from my life journey, so you can appreciate how special your contribution to my health and recovery is.

Your support, spiritually and with medical funds, can empower my capacity toward making the world a better place.  I have some delightful plans for the future.  (Ask me for details, if you don’t already know.)

Thanks for sharing the journey with me!
I hope this is going to be a great ride for us all!
~KC

1) Why I Volunteered After Firestorms ~ Resiliency & Compassion!

I lost my home to a fire when I was EXTREMELY disabled.  Due to extra-ordinary circumstances I was made homeless while suffering with severe disability.  — THIS is where my passion came from to help others in their recovery when adequate resources are unavailable.

I still have immense passion for this project, but my life changed course with COVID.  I still would like to complete my mission for more resilient housing.  I’m not sure if I ever will.  This is a big part of who I am and what I wish for.

2016 – First time I told my story in public

Here is my story regarding my own home loss and where my personal motivation to volunteer after fire storms began.  I volunteered after firestorms throughout the entire state of California for 5 years.

This video is a one year anniversary ceremony of the 2015 Valley Fire.  Sadly the host of this event died in 2023, Karl Parker.  This is an enormous loss to the community.  He was kind and thoughtful soul.  He was considered a spiritual leader to those who knew him.


2) Some of what I witnessed

Seeing this home survive at ground zero of a fire storm is quite impressive…. even when a fire gutted the ATTACHED garage.

There is more to this story which gave me so much insight into more resilient solutions.  This among many other experiences taught me what a resilient post disaster housing model may look like.


3) What I did for others after major firestorms

The video below opens with my presentation to the Board of Supervisors about emergency housing.  It was ALWAYS my goal to offer this gift of RVs to the community within the legal constraints and immense financial needs of the local government.

Here’s some insight into what happened at the Board of Supervisors meeting when the firestorm area was re-populated.   One of the RV recipients was an extra-ordinary story.  He really needed us to move forward in his life.   He lost his home, job, car and cat in one day.  He was the on-site night security at a resort that burned.  After the fire he lived in a donated car for three months or friend’s couches.
The day he got that RV, not only could he begin to heal from the trauma caused by the firestorm, but he also got another job.  There was a sister resort that did not burn.  He took the RV to that property, where he stayed and worked in the same role he had prior to the fire.

In 2017, while on vacation, I received an email from the government in Sonoma County asking if I would volunteer with RVs again.  I was SHOCKED that they asked, because there is a fear of RVs devaluing neighborhoods.  I didn’t think the government cared.  I was wrong, but it like many political problems, there is a broad range of opinions on the value of RVs after a disaster.

This RV below was given to a family with 1.5 year old triplets.  In spite of full-time jobs they were already struggling financially prior to the fire.  This RV allowed them to park in front of their parent’s home so they could have help with the children while waiting for another affordable housing opportunity.  (Prices always skyrocket after fire storms and the un-insured renters suffer immensely from that.)

Actually, housing prices can increase 40% or more depending on the scale of the disaster. That is what happened in Paradise, California in 2018.

My other contributions to recovery after firestorms included ValleyFire Animal (to locate animals under ANY context).  That was and likely still remains a HUGE problem post disaster.  A local animal shelter can only document what is under their care, custody and control.  And they had no capacity to communicate with pictures which is the primary means of identification.  It was my role to communicate with veterinarians and the public that this resource existed.

The other major contribution was offering my 1 ton truck for hauling emergency supplies to shelters.  I was quickly “promoted” to the role of being the primary interface with the locations receiving supplies to be the link with the volunteers coordinating receipt and delivery.

There were other contributions, but these were the main areas of my involvement during the course of 5 years of progressively destructive firestorms in California.

These experiences taught me alot and I do have very, very strong and specific ideas regarding how to create more resilient housing after firestorm.  This model not only creates more resilient housing stock, but reduces the economic damage to ALL members of the community…..  (except those people who profit from other people’s loss.)

You can help me make that model  a future possibility by contributing to my medical recovery with your kind words and generous resource offerings.

Thanks for your presence and encouragement.
~KC (Kimberly)