California’s Park Fire burns 6 homes within the same Butte County family

CHICO — A Cohasset family is recovering after six homes within their extended family were destroyed in the Park Fire.

They were on vacation when what’s now become the sixth-largest wildfire in California history broke out in Butte County last week. They started calling friends and loved ones to get their important belongings before it was too late.

Alida Markwood told CBS13 her family home, along with those of her mother, her grandmother, uncle, cousin and brother were all impacted. At least one of the homes was a rental and was the source of income for members of her family.

Now they’re focused on what is necessary to rebuild and find comfort again.

“We don’t have a place to go home to. We don’t have a home and so I guess (it’s) a just really hectic, really busy, kind of lost feeling. I know one of the other things you asked was, you know, how we’ve been feeling, and I tried to describe it to people as like a feeling of being lost,” Markwood said.

They are staying with another family member, which Markwood said is a blessing that others may not have.

“It’s somewhere to rest,” she told CBS13.

She said she knows her family is not alone in the impact of the Park Fire. While she hasn’t been able to go back to any of the family homes to see the damage with her own eyes, a neighbor sent photos of one of the homes.

“It was a very sentimental home. My mom and dad built it together, and he passed away a few years ago. So it was like the last of him that we lost. So the sentimental side, all the little things like socks and shoes and things you can go buy,” Markwood said. “But it’s the things that are part of him and part of our family history that we can’t get back. It’s probably the hardest part to wrap your head around.”

They’ve turned to the community for support, through the nonprofit GoFundMe. The company told CBS13 that the nonprofit side was established to provide families, like Markwood’s, with money quickly after a natural disaster. A spokesperson for GoFundMe told CBS13 they can fulfill grant requests as part of the Northern California Wildfire fund in one-to-three days at times.

Markwood said her family needs support in the day-to-day as they process the losses from the Park Fire. Other members of her family impacted by the fire have turned to GoFundMe for immediate support and rebuilding funds.