Blake was asleep when his mother called his phone to wake him up. "She said she saw smoke a few miles away and called me to help move some of our vehicles and snow machines," said Blake. It was a mere 20 minutes later, when the family was working together to move their belongings, that the flames from the Mukluk Wildfire in Tok crested their neighbor's property.

At the same time as Blake was evacuating with his family, Joshua was working out of town and got a call from his wife.  “My wife called and told me there was a fire and she had our son at the grocery store because she didn’t know where to go,” said Joshua.

When he returned to town, his home was gone. “My wife and son made it out, but they had nothing but the clothes on their backs.” Just 83 miles from the Canadian border, Tok is home to roughly 1,200 people and was recently devastated by the Mukluk fire. Nearly 50 homes were destroyed by the fire. The Red Cross stepped in to provide emergency shelter, disaster emergency supplies, and financial assistance to help offset the cost of their recovery. “All of this stuff is money out of our pockets we don’t have to spend as we are trying to scramble and build our life back again,” said Joshua.

Several community members and other disaster response agencies have contributed to the construction of emergency winter shelters to ensure displaced residents have a safe and warm place to stay as they work to rebuild.

 “I would have never expected something like this to happen, and you don't know how many people are out there willing to help until a disaster like this is in your town,” said Joshua. “I just want to thank everyone who helped us.”

Blake said Tok is his family's home, and he hopes to rebuild as soon as possible. "With the money from the Red Cross, that will buy us screws, wood, and some tools to rebuild."