BATTLE GROUND — Lois Ivanoff and William Brown remembered the feeling of helplessness as they watched wildfire roll through Northern California earlier last month, destroying homes and upending lives.
Ivanoff, who is from a fire-prone part of California herself, saw stories of the destruction on social media and contacted her husband.
“I said, ‘Honey, I think we should adopt a family,’ ” she said. “He texted me the same day, saying we should do this. We were both thinking the same thing on the same day.”
Just weeks later, they were sitting down with Leesa Holder and her two teenage children — Amber Brown, 14, and Dominick Brown, 13 — sharing dinner at their Battle Ground home. Holder and her children are no relation to William Brown.
The Camp Fire, since contained, swept through Paradise and surrounding areas in Northern California, killing at least 85 people and destroying 14,000 homes.
The three and their puppy, Koda, arrived at Ivanoff and Brown’s house Nov. 25. They headed south to survey the situation Monday, but Ivanoff said they might end up back in Battle Ground, and are still welcome at her place.
Since the fire, the family has been working on their next steps, and processing their ordeal.
Holder and her children were living with her sister and her family in Paradise when the fire struck. On the morning of Nov. 8, when the fire started, Holder’s family didn’t have a real sense of what was happening. Even growing up in Northern California, she’d never been especially impacted by fire, she said.
She decided it would be better to take her son to school herself, along with her niece.
“I dropped him off at the school, and little pieces of ashes were falling on the van,” she said. “I didn’t understand, still, like, we were in the middle of a fire.”
About 10 minutes later, her sister called her, saying to turn around and grab the kids.
“There was huge pieces of debris falling on the windshield at that point, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s going on?’ ” Holder said.
No way home
She grabbed her niece and son, then met with her brother-in-law at a gas station. He drove off with his daughter, then Holder and her son tried heading home.
The road was backed up with thousands of fleeing drivers, and they were starting to see flames as they drove, knocking over mailboxes and trash bins as they worked against traffic.
Traffic was too bad to keep going, so a few miles from home, they parked the car and tried running, she said.
She even took off her pants to help move faster and shield her son, she said, but the fire cut them off, leaving them in despair.
“I looked at my son and he looks at me … and we just start crying,” she recalled.
But then a man in a small, black pickup rolled up and told them to get in.
They were in tears thanking the man, named Darryl, but they still had a fire to survive.
“He looks right at me and says, ‘Do you believe in God?’ I said, ‘You know what, I’ve been struggling with my faith, but right now, I definitely believe in something, because you’re the only one that came,’ ” Holder said.
Navigating back roads, they made it past the flames. He dropped them off at the top of their road, then drove away.
“All in all, he saved our lives,” she said. “If it weren’t for Darryl, I don’t think my son and I would be here today.”
Holder doesn’t know what happened to Darryl.
They made it home, where her sister was waiting for her husband and daughter. After some time without hearing any word, they decided it was time to leave.
The skies were black, and they could see fire cresting hillsides, Holder said.
“We were scared to death, like we were not going to make it,” she said.
They made it out, as did her brother-in-law and niece, then spent the next two weeks or so between hotel rooms and her sister’s van.
Reaching out to help
At a mall in Chico, Calif., they met a Red Cross volunteer who was also helping connect people with temporary lodging and other relief through Paradise Adopt a Family. Ivanoff spotted one of the group’s videos on Facebook.
Ivanoff connected with Holder’s program sponsor in California. They helped the Holders find a meal for Thanksgiving at the only open restaurant they could find — a nearby Denny’s — and, later, offered them a room in their house.
“There’s suffering everywhere, hugely,” Brown said. “Certain things, though, tend to be closer than others.”
Trouble from wildfires isn’t something they’re unfamiliar with, he said. Along with their 17-year-old son, Chris, they also have a roommate, a friend of their daughter’s who moved here after damage from another fire made him unable to commute to work.
“You can’t rescue the world,” Brown said. “We do our little part here and there. We’re no different than everyone else.”
Bringing two families into the house was scary at first, Ivanoff and Holder said.
“After that I just fell in love with her,” Holder said of Ivanoff. “She’s like my mom away from Mom, definitely.”
The two mothers have a surprising amount in common, Ivanoff said.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in, what has happened,” she said. “They just need that time together, I think.”
They want to help Holder get a job and get settled, if she ultimately chooses to stay in Washington.
Ivanoff said Tuesday Holder still wasn’t sure about their next steps.
“Obviously they still need help, to build a life,” she said.
Days after coming to Battle Ground, Holder learned her sister’s house survived the fire, and was untouched by fire.
She’d like to be part of rebuilding her community, she said, but the bouncing around has been a challenge.
When she first left her home, all she grabbed was a blanket, her kids and her mother’s ashes.
“There’s really nothing holding us back now,” she said.
