Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Utah firefighters assisted a California man, Craig, in recovering his wedding and college rings from his destroyed home.
- Despite extensive devastation from the Palisades fire, the team successfully located the rings after an arduous search.
- Craig expressed deep gratitude, highlighting the firefighters' significant impact amidst widespread destruction.
LOS ANGELES — A crew of Utah firefighters are sharing a story of hope amidst the destruction from the site of the California wildfires.
Dozens of firefighters from across the state traveled to Los Angeles last week. They're still putting out hot spots and cleaning up properties that homeowners are coming back to for the first time since they were initially evacuated.
A California man named Craig was approached by a crew of Salt Lake City firefighters stationed in his Pacific Palisades neighborhood on Sunday. When he asked for help, they delivered.
"We just happened to be cutting some trees and clearing some brush from a street in our work area assignment when Craig approached us — the homeowner who was sifting through some of the remains of his foundation — and he asked us if we could assist him in finding some rings," SLC Fire Captain Scott Winkler said.
The team said it was up to the challenge but, given the conditions of the area, it would be a hard task.
"Most of the homes that did catch fire are a total loss and so there is not a lot to sift through and recover," Winkler said. "Craig's house was a total loss and he was pretty overcome, but he was already in the process of thinking about rebuilding and the only thing that he wanted to retrieve today, when visiting his property for the first time, was those rings."
Fire Captain Matt Taylor said he's seen and worked on large fires but has never seen devastation as extensive as the Pacific Palisades fire. He was determined to help Craig.
"He had already said that he had given up pretty much finding anything else," he said.
Craig told the out-of-state firefighters where his bedroom used to be amongst the mounds of melted-down belongings and piles of ash as fine as sand.
"We found a pull knob from his nightstand and then my crew, literally shovel by shovel, did a little bit of an archeological dig," Winkler said.
They found a circular object covered in charcoal.
"We were able to read the inscription and he's like, 'Yeah, that's my wedding ring,'" Taylor said.
Utah fire engineer Scott Haney said they continued scooping and sifting until they found Craig's college ring.
"After finding the wedding ring, he was kind of just like, 'It's OK, don't worry, don't worry,' and it's like, 'We've come this far,'" Haney said.
Winkler said after 20 to 30 minutes of digging, both rings were recovered.
"It was just like a small victory in a sea of destruction," he said.
Just when Craig was ready to walk away, he found the crew who would reunite him with precious belongings.
"I saw him turn away and get a little emotional, and I think he immediately texted his family and let them know that what he was there for he found, and thanked us four or five times before he left," Winkler said.
In a social media post, Unified Fire Authority said Craig told them, "I was sifting through everything, what I thought would be impossible to find anything, everything's destroyed. I was just getting ready to walk away when the Salt Lake crew came up and said 'Can we do anything?' I said actually, I know exactly where my wedding ring is, my college ring is, maybe you could help me find it. It didn't even take 10 minutes and we found both of them. It was amazing. It means a lot to me. They were super, super, super helpful."
"I just can't even imagine the shock and the grief," Winkler said. "We're here to give to whatever they need, even if it's something as simple as a bottle of water."
These Utah firefighters may be coming home soon. They're expecting to learn more closer to the end of this week. They said they feel the love from Utah.
"All of our spouses and dependents at home are well taken care of," Winkler said. "It's almost overwhelming for us to be out here and know how much support we're getting all around. The people of California have been beyond gracious hosts for us."
These firemen said it is an honor to be there, lending some support and they know the same would be done for us.
Cal Fire is asking us to do things as simple as clearing a sidewalk so an affected homeowner can have access to their property, removing debris and nails and things like that from a driveway," Winkler said. "Just something on a human level that you would like to see if you showed up to your property and just wanted to survey it without walking across broken glass."
