Oklahoma native loses home in California wildfires
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — An Oklahoma native is being forced to start over after he and his family lost nearly everything to one of the California wildfires.
The family made the move out west back in 2014.
They say they are still in shock seeing the aftermath of the destruction. The family described evacuating as like a scene straight out of a movie.
"I opened the door, and he just said, 'the whole thing is on fire, and it's coming your way, you got to go now,'" said Josiah Conrad, who lost his home in the California wildfires said.
Video was taken by Conrad's friend on his way to their home in Altadena, California, to tell his family they need to evacuate.
"All the cell towers went down to zero bars, which you don't usually doesn't happen," Conrad said. "So, we knew something bigger than that was going on. But in that scenario, there's no information coming in or going out."
Together, they grabbed what they could and left.
"We threw the kids and a couple laundry baskets worth of sentimental things in the back of the Ford Runner," Conrad said. "I've seen my kids scared or startled before, but not genuinely terrified ever like this. My wife asked her, 'what are you most afraid of right now?' And she said, 'I'm afraid I'm going to die. Am I going to die?' And I said, no, you're not going to die, baby."
The following morning, they tried to go back.
"We got within about maybe two miles of it, and there were just big flames just kind of leaping across the road and burnt out cars, and we finally just decided probably shouldn't," Conrad said.
They were eventually able to return a couple days later.
"You suddenly realize, oh, that house is gone and their house is gone, and now I can see all the way to the mountain where I shouldn't be able to," Conrad said. "You realize the total devastation of the entire neighborhood, and my loss feels insignificant compared to the some of that."
For the past week, the Conrad's have been staying with friends as they recover what they can to try and rebuild the life they once had, but Josiah says things will never be the same.
"There's some problems only money can solve, but there's a lot of problems money can't solve," Conrad said. "You know, all my kids memories that we have and, you know, memories that we built, we've been together a long time, and you build a life of memories."
As of right now, Conrad says money is the best way to help because they have no place to store any physical items.
However, he says he wants to spread the love. Below are GoFundMe's for his family and families close to him who lost everything in the wildfires as well. Click on the link in the names to view their GoFundMe's.