Western wildfire victims turn to crowdfunding for relief

Families who have lost their homes and belongings to wildfires across the U.S. West are resorting to crowdfunding, with hopes of obtaining some relief amid an ongoing crisis.

GoFundMe, the world’s biggest crowdfunding platform, reported Monday that hundreds of people, from California to Colorado, have turned to this resource for immediate assistance.

GoFundMe users have raised more than $210 million for such relief over the past five years, with the number of wildfire-related fundraisers tripling during that time period, according to the company.

The spike in such fundraisers coincides with a growing wildfire threat in the region amid record-breaking heat and drought driven by climate change.

In California alone, 14 blazes of 10 acres or more are currently burning, with the particularly brutal Park fire scorching more than 400,000 acres in the northern part of the Golden State.

“After losing their Paradise home in the 2018 Camp Fire, Kristy and Michael Daneau and their family began to rebuild their life in Cohasset,” one related GoFundMe campaign reads.

The creator describes how the family took “a six hour journey” to evacuate from the Park fire-adjacent town of Cohasset to establish temporary housing in Chico — with their five dogs.

“They followed news of the fire, only to learn that once again, their permanent home was destroyed by fire,” the campaign adds.

In Southern California, where the Borel fire has burned nearly 60,000 acres as part of the “SQF Lightning Complex,” another campaign describes the destruction of a “dream 30-acre mountain ranch” in the historic mining town of Havilah, which was destroyed in the flames. 

“The house, outbuildings, animal pens, office building, and many of our animals just perished this weekend in the Borel fire,” the campaign states.

Aiming to streamline support for victims, GoFundMe has launched a centralized Wildfire Relief Hub, which hosts all verified fundraisers connected to the fires. The company said it had also opened a designated Wildfire Relief Fund, which will deliver cash grants to those directly impacted.