A California firefighter who was battling a wildfire about 150 miles from his home in the Sierra Nevada Mountains lost his own abode in a blaze that destroyed nearly 600 residences.
"I just told my wife I’d look for anything that resembled something," Justin Galvan, 33, who first started fighting wildfires at 19,
told The New York Times.
He learned of the fire in a distress call.
Galvan's home was among eight of the 585 houses destroyed in a wildfire that belonged to firefighters, the Times reports.
The fast-moving fire began over the weekend in Middletown, two hours north of San Francisco.
Other firefighters lost cars or garages. Their families left with other evacuees, to relatives’ homes or emergency shelters, according to the Times.
Galvan's wife, Erika, 33, who is a guidance counselor at a local school, and their three children are now staying in a friend’s trailer in Kelseyville, on the northern tip of the fire, the Times reports.
The couple had insurance on their home — and while Galvan's car is full of donated clothes, they are working to put their lives together.
"We need to get back to normal," Galvan told the Times.
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