this came through on the Sonoma County Conscious Community Housing website:
passing this on: REPOSTING - pass along to people affected by the fire.
This came from a someone who was a victim of the 1991 fire:
"I'm reading up on the devastation of the Napa and Sonoma county fires. This is now the worst fire in the history of Northern California. Formerly the #1 (now comes 2nd) is the Oakland Hills fire in 1991. Unbeknownst to many except a few friends in my circle I, along with my 3 other UC Berkeley roomates, were victims of that 1991 fire when our apartment in the North side near the Caldecott Tunnel burned downed.
Reading this made me remember what I did back then to help fire victims such as myself. If you know anyone affected by the fire please advise them to:
(1) Contact their insurance companies. Most will cover hotel stays, apart from the usual coverage.
(2) Call their credit card companies and have the last 3-6 months of their purchases reimbursed back (get a police report that testifies you are a fire victim).
(3) If you are renting and are a minor, your parents' home insurance may cover your belongings (this is how I got my stuff reimbursed through my parent's home insurance even if they lived 300 miles away at that time).
(4) Call your chain retail stores and see what they can offer to fire victims (I remember GAP gave away free clothes to fire victims up to $500 per person...yes my roommates and I were like walking GAP ads bed literally that was all the clothes we had).
(5) Get as many resources and information as you can and keep passing the info around. You will see the kindness of strangers and the familial treatment of friends.
My prayers to anyone you know affected by this devastation."