THORNTON, Colo. (KDVR) — As the wildfires rage on in Los Angeles, family and loved ones in other states are forced to watch on helplessly from the sidelines. This is the case for a woman in Thornton, whose sister was forced to evacuate, and now she is doing her best to help from a thousand miles away.
On Tuesday, Chelsey Brock received a text message from her sister, Christy Herington, that caused her heart to sink, along with pictures of the fire coming right towards her.
Herington has lived in California for 20 years, working as a P.E. teacher at Wilson Middle School. While she has seen her share of fires and floods, Brock said she has not seen anything like this.
“Nothing that’s ever been close to the Alta Dena area or La Crescenta where she also lived, but never in her backyard,” Brock said.
Brock said her sister grabbed a few things including their dog and important documents, then left. That night, they spent the night in her car. Brock said she hadn’t heard anything from her sister all night because Herington had lost service. But the next day, she received another heartbreaking text.
“We got the text on Wednesday. Probably like 8 p.m. that her whole neighborhood was gone,” Brock said. “It was probably one of the hardest text messages to receive from a loved one that they’ve lost everything.”
Her daughters’ childhood memories, pictures, everything was gone.
“We’re all still very much still in shock about it,” Brock said.
Now, Herington and her daughters are safe in a hotel, but Brock said she is just trying to raise money for them to get by since Red Cross and FEMA are swamped with everything else.
“I think everybody’s really overwhelmed right now, so that was one of the reasons why I started the GoFundMe. Was to just get them essentials like socks you know and those things that they don’t have,” Brock said.
The fundraiser has already raised almost $30,000 and she said she hopes it’s enough to get this teacher and her daughters back on their feet.
“That’s probably something my sister’s going to think about for a long time about all those things that she’s lost. We are grateful that they’re safe and their dog was got out. But it’s just — they have nothing.”
