{"id":305566,"date":"2017-10-13T12:10:07","date_gmt":"2017-10-13T10:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/california-in-flames\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:35:32","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:35:32","slug":"california-in-flames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/california-in-flames\/","title":{"rendered":"California In Flames"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20171013-04\"The untamed fires that are devastating parts of California, <\/strong>strengthened by the strong winds and unseasonable temperatures, have left dozens of victims, the largest number in the recorded history of California, along with hundreds of people who are missing. The number of volunteers and equipment is quite striking: more than 8 thousand fire-fighters and volunteers, 550 ground equipment, 73 helicopters and more than 30 air-planes. Images of the fires that are destroying more than 80,000 hectares are spreading around the world. Countless homes have been burnt down. The most devastated counties include Sonoma, Mendocino, Yuba and Napa. Thousands of people have already been evacuated, especially in Napa County, which is known for its wine vineyards. One of the most hit areas <\/strong>is Sonoma County where Santa Rosa is located, which is head location for more than 200 thousand inhabitants. Entire regions of the city have been reduced to ashes. From Santa Rosa, Cindy Fitzmaurice, <\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>from the Focolare community was able to send news through Facebook, concerning the difficult conditions that many are living in now that they\u2019ve had to abandon their houses. \u201cWe\u2019re ready to flee,\u201d she writes, posting a photo taken around three o\u2019clock in the morning, in which the sky appears orange. \u201cMy heart is in pieces for my friends who have lost everything. We\u2019re learning what really matters, and it\u2019s certainly not material things.\u201d <\/em> It\u2019s been a hard experience <\/strong>for Cindy and her neighbours, fleeing the fires in the middle of the night, looking for shelter in the homes of friends. Some had to escape with nothing but their pyjamas, leaving everything else behind. Fortunately, she writes again: <\/strong>\u201cEvacuated, but safe and sound. May God bless Santa Rosa. Leaving my house after 25 years was hard. But at least we had enough time to do it and, for this, we are eternally grateful. Other\u2019s can\u2019t say the same. We\u2019ll see what tomorrow will bring.\u201d \u00a0<\/em> Following a night of fear and praying, last Wednesday Cindy was able to tell her friends about the good news: \u201cFeeling extremely grateful. We are back home this morning. \u201cFeeling extremely grateful. We are back home this morning. For now. the winds shifted east overnight toward Napa. Good for us, but so bad for others. I can\u2019t even imagine their loss.<\/em> Cindy thanks her friends <\/strong>who take care of them, especially her elderly mother-in-law. \u201cAll we can do is be grateful and see how we can help others. Thank you all for your prayers.\u201d Cindy\u2019s 18 year old niece works at a nursing home: \u201cAll the residents were evacuated to anther city. I\u2019m proud of how she\u2019s taking care of all of them.\u201d Many others have posted photos on Facebook <\/strong>of their houses devoured by the flames and reduced to ashes. But they\u2019re grateful to be alive. This is what matters most.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cindy reports from the Focolare community: \u201cWe got away and are now safe. My heart is in pieces for the people who lost everything. This is how we\u2019re leaning what matters in life, certainly not material things. Up until today the death toll has risen to 31 and more than 400 missing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}