Please do not donate your discards. If you really want to help send a check. The Red Cross is first on the scene to help victims. They are given vouchers or prepaid credit/debit cards for essentials like clothing and bedding. They are sheltered and given assistance in finding temporary housing.

Donated goods that
are unsolicited or inappropriate frequently cause more harm than
good. Unnecessary and unmanageable items take up the space that is often needed for essential relief goods. There is often limited capacity for personnel and
operating facilities. These donations of non essentials goods take up time and space. There is no one available to sort through all the food and clothing. All those old blankets or linens would have to be washed by someone. So most of those things would end up in the landfill.

I speak from experience. I have had a family member lose everything to a fire and now I am helping a friend go through the same thing. It's not the Salvation Army, Goodwill or the church that shows up to these events. It is the Red Cross that does the most to get people back on their feet, find them shelter and housing etc. If you really want to help send a check to them.

I know some people don't like to hear it but the only ones at the front lines I've ever seen in California are the Red Cross.

OK! Red Cross it is! I just want to help. My tears can't put out those fires, but my checkbook can.

Don't forget these people still have to make their car and house payments, even though the house and cars are gone.

suzi, I think you have some misunderstandings concerning what happens when a car is stolen or a house is lost to fire.

First the car - that's what having proper auto insurance is about. A stolen or fire destroyed car gets replaced. Maybe not entirely like for like because of how value and loss get calculated, but it's not like the person is paying monthly and has nothing available to drive.

The house - mortgage holders always require homeowners insurance. The insurance company communicates the status of the outstanding policy to the lender each year when renewed. If a house is lost to a fire, the insurance coverage pays for the rebuilding and refurnishing of the house. I won't get in to what is or isn't paid, whether it's like for like, etc. But again, it's not like the buyer continues to pay a mortgage for what's only an empty lot. Insurance also covers temporary living expenses too.

I echo the comment, now is not the time to unload castoff stuff from your garage. It unlikely to be of use for victims of these fires.

Snidely, I don't misunderstand, but these are rural areas and not everyone has insurance. Your old junker and house is paid off? Many don't have insurance. If not, what do they do? Where do they turn?

Another way to help would be to donate funds to the local animal shelters in the fire zone. I am sure they are overwhelmed. I haven't researched yet but there is a a lot of large animal rescue going on like horses and livestock.

Check out the websites, newspaper, or Facebook for places like the fire departments where the fires are. When Mannford, Oklahoma burned a few years back, there were specific requests for needed items. There was a lot of poverty there already. There were some requests for used clothes and household items. Then there were requests for new socks, underwear, shovels, bottled water, canned goods, utility gloves, black trash bags, and other things that could be used in the fire clean-up. I lived in a community that was good about helping others. There were some drop off stations where they would fill up trucks and drive them over to the areas in need.

Here is another way to help. Local disaster relief funding local agencies.
http://www.mymotherlode.com/news/local/248767/new-fund-seeks-butte-fire-recovery-donations.html

Even if you are insured, it may be a while before you see any money or reimbursement. When you have an emergency or get evacuated, you are lucky if you get you and your loved ones out alive. You may not have time to grab your wallet with cash, credit card, or any belongings. People whose houses burn down may have to prove that they lost specific items in a fire. The little things you lost like the Monopoly games or other trinkets may not figure into the replacements.

When my DD lost her apartment and most of it's contents to fire I was astounded that of the thirty or so families displaced only she and one other tenant carried renter's insurance.

I echo watchme's statement to send $ to the Red Cross. When DD was living in a ramshackle house with 7 other girls her junior year of college a fire broke out in the afternoon. My DD and one roommate were home and they got out safely. Only one of the girls lost almost everything. The Red Cross showed up and worked with the school to find temporary housing, etc.. Can't say enough about how the Red Cross worked with the school (huge university) and how much they both helped the girls.

Yes, the Red Cross is the way to go. They are the first responders. When we were flooded out of our house from the backwash of a hurricane, they came with vouchers for bedding, cleaning supplies and so on. They were wonderful.

Unless it's hard money, lenders have the insurance policies on file and understand disasters. They often times will make concessions during times like this.

Our local news is horrible, we don't see what is going on outside of the daily Detroit shootings so I skip the news. If Gov. Brown hasn't already, I hope he will declare a state of emergency soon. That will certainly help aid to come in as well.

I have always donated money to the Salvation Army and specify where the money is to be used.

Lukiirish a state of emergency has been declared two days ago. here's a link to updates via the LA Times. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-fire-valley-butte-updates-htmlstory.html

i'd encourage everyone who has the hint of fire to photograph as much as possible...learned that years ago on "this old house"...it was by luck, the dd of the owner was making a film on her family and took pictures of a couple of rare collections of books and her dad's tools. ect....with this info they were more than covered and paid...

my friend in Idaho, when the fires there were popping up took all paperwork out to what was the planned get-away car...lucky for them, the last fire was 30 miles away and stopped...