Former Brewers star Ryan Braun praises firefighters battling LA wildfires: 'Truly heroes'

Former Milwaukee Brewers star Ryan Braun was evacuated from his home in California for the majority of the last six weeks due to the Los Angeles wildfires. 

Braun, 41, talked about his appreciation for firefighters as they continue to try and keep people and buildings safe.

"Firefighters and first responders are truly heroes," Braun told Fox News Digital on Saturday. "I don’t think that we get an opportunity to thank them often enough. But those guys have put their lives on the line. They’ve worked night and day. I know a number of firefighters who literally didn’t sleep for 72 hours.

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"These guys are out there doing everything in their power to save as many people and structures as possible. Incredibly grateful for everything that they’ve done for the community, and today is an opportunity to try to say thank you to as many of them as possible."

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Braun, along with World Series champion Mike Moustakas, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, Brewers star Christian Yelich and Mike Attanasio from the Brewers' ownership created California Strong to help communities affected by the disaster.

California Strong is a program of the YMCA dedicated to providing support to all Californians after disasters.

Yelich spoke about the California community continuing to support each other in times of need.

"The community seems to step up every time there’s people in need. I remember the Woolsey Fire was about seven years ago now, which seems to have flown by, but it’s a long recovery process. You know, it’s not something that takes a day, a week, even a year," Yelich told Fox News Digital.

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"It’s a multiyear process, and just to help people get back on their feet here at the beginning, hopefully be able to stay with them throughout the process and get back to normal whenever that may be."

Moustakas talked about how California Strong originated from Braun, Yelich, Goff and Attanasio just checking in with each other during tough times.

"It started out with us checking in on each other and then quickly transformed into us trying to use our platforms to help those in need. And that’s one of the greatest things about what we were able to do in baseball was use the platform in a way for good," Moustakas told Fox News Digital.

"We were very fortunate enough to have this YMCA partner with us, and it just kind of took off from there. And we’re here today supporting a ton of families with a great community. We’re very excited to help these people out."

Braun talked about how long and arduous the rebuilding process will be for people and how California Strong wants to help those people. 

"We live in this community. We grew up in this community. We can relate to the people and what they’re going through and dealing with. Similar to Mike (Moustaktas), I have three young children, and so I always view these situations through the lens of other parents. It’s difficult. It’s traumatizing. It is a long and daunting process for a lot of people to think about where to even begin to rebuild their lives. And, so, for us, the goal of California Strong was to support people after natural disasters and tragedies," Braun said.

"That’s what we’ve tried to do over the last seven years. That’s what today is all about. And the goal is to be able to support people both in the near term, immediately today and then longer term as they go through what ends up being a very long and challenging process to rebuild their lives."

California Strong is working with Proactive Sports to help get Californians back on their feet. 

"Proactive Sports has been partnered with California Strong since the inception," Proactive Sports owner Emily Capretta told Fox News Digital. "We hosted an event for those impacted by the Woolsey Fire and the Borderline shooting, unfortunately, that we experienced in our community in 2018. 

"And a really smart, strong group of women we mobilized to do a community thanksgiving, and that kind of started the beginning of California Strong,

"This particular event, the night those that were being displaced and losing their homes, I texted that original group of women that they wanted to do this again with me. And then I also texted Ryan Braun, and I said, ‘It’s time to mobilize. We need to be the first action point for those impacted."

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