For families returning to fire-scarred neighborhoods, the American Red Cross is bringing help directly to their doorsteps—delivering food, water and cleanup supplies to help them begin the difficult work of recovery. (Photo: Jamie Myers/American Red Cross)
By Jamie Myers
Don and Diane Henke bought their home new in 1993. When the driveway was poured, their daughters — then 3 and 1 — pressed a tiny hand and footprint into the wet concrete.
More than 30 years later, Don stood among the ashes of the only home his daughters had ever known, bending over that same driveway and trying to make out those little impressions.
Today, their daughters are grown and Don and Diane have four grandsons.
“The hardest part for me is I had rooms for my four grandsons and my two daughters to come for Christmas,” Don said. “Our lives have changed because the girls’ rooms aren’t there and the boys’ rooms aren’t there.”
This was the family’s fourth evacuation.
When Don saw smoke rising over the ridge, he rode his e-bike toward it and saw smoke behind the houses.
“The fire jumped the river like nothing,” he said.
Don and Diane hooked up their trailer, began packing and prepared to leave with their 4-year-old Goldendoodle, Penny. Don and his neighbors began putting water on their roofs, just as they had during previous fire threats.
Then came the warning from a neighbor: “It’s climbing the hill. It’s time to go.”
This time, there would be no home to return to.
The fire also destroyed Don’s shop and his beloved 1957 Chevy Bel Air, a car he had owned since 1984. Over 42 years, it had four motors and three transmissions. Don had even painted it himself in the shop he called his “man cave.”
But what was lost went far beyond possessions.
“We met all of our friends here in our 30s,” Don said.
When another neighbor stopped by and asked how Diane was doing, Don answered simply: “She’s a wreck.”
In the aftermath, American Red Cross volunteers have continued to show up.
“They’ve come through here with food every day,” Don said. “It’s been amazing.”
The Red Cross also delivered a rake, shovel and a bin filled with cleanup and protective supplies. The day before, one volunteer had even offered to help Don dig the burned cars from the debris.
A cleanup kit cannot replace 33 years of family memories, bedrooms waiting for daughters and grandsons at Christmas, or a treasured car owned for 42 years.
But it can remind a family facing unimaginable loss that they aren’t facing it alone.
“Thank you Red Cross, for your compassion,” Don said.
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