Firefighters open up about losing their own homes in LA wildfires
Thousands of people, including at least 12 firefighters, have lost homes in the Los Angeles County wildfires, according to the California Fire Foundation.
Among them are Pasadena Fire Department firefighter Charles Hawes and fire engineer Chien Yu, an 18-year veteran of the department.
Hawes was fighting flames about one minute down the road from his parents' home, where he lived with his 2-year-old son Liam, when he saw it was on fire.
"It was kind of like a fever dream where just everything was on fire," Hawes recalled to "Good Morning America." "I walked up the street and could see my parents' whole roof was on fire. I felt so helpless ... we're supposed to be fixers in this job, and that wasn't the case that night."
Hawes took "GMA" through his neighborhood, which he fought so hard to save.
"There's nothing. It just takes the breath out of you," Hawes said. "The hard part is losing the sentimental things. We're never gonna lose the memories."
Yu had spent hours overnight fighting fires in a neighboring town before he learned his Pasadena home, which he shares with his wife Kim and sons Hudson and Atticus, had burned down.
"They took me off the rig just to get some relief, you know, get some rest. I asked 'em, 'Hey, can we please go by my house to see if it's still standing?'" Yu recalled. "So we came up, and it was gone. It was burned to the ground."
Yu said he is "devastated" at losing his home and feels regretful for what happened.
"Maybe I should have tried to stay, you know? Maybe I shouldn't have gone to work, you know? Maybe I should have stayed and tried to fight it, grab more stuff," he said.
While the majority of his home is gone, Yu was able to salvage at least one sentimental item – his wedding ring.
"We had gone back with my crew and I was kind of half jokingly saying, like, 'Hey, maybe I could find my ring.' I knew where it was at so without even asking, the guys jumped in, started looking through and sure enough, they were like, 'I think this is it,'" Yu recounted.
Despite the enormous personal toll, Hawes and his fellow firefighters are still back at work and fighting multiple active fires, including the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County and the Auto Fire in Ventura County.
"Unfortunately, I don't think you really have an opportunity to just kind of roll over and give up with this job. We have a duty to serve the community," Hawes said. "I needed time to be with my family and spend time with my family. That was a priority. But I had to also give time to my community and get back to the community, work with the coworkers, get back in it."
The firefighters say the bond between them and their families is what's helping them get through these difficult times.
"I think, personally, it's my parents and my kid that really keep me going, my 2-year-old son," Hawes said.
Added Yu, "We gotta stick together. We're gonna make it through it. At the end of the day, it always works out."
To assist the California Fire Foundation and its mission to provide emotional and financial assistance to firefighters and their families and communities, Planet Fitness and its Los Angeles franchise announced Friday on "GMA" they are donating $100,000 to the nonprofit.
Uber Eats and Postmates also announced they are donating $500,000 in vouchers to the California Fire Foundation to be used on meals, groceries and other essential items.
