Couple Takes Blame for Starting Deadly Wildfires, Messages Offering Forgiveness Pour In
The wildfires in California are absolutely devastating.
Between the Mendocino Complex and other smaller ones, like the Carr Fire, this has definitely been a rough season for the drought-ridden state.
While the Mendocino Complex has been deemed the largest fire in California’s history, the Carr Fire should not be overlooked. It was was just recently named the state’s eighth largest fire, according to Cal Fire.
Even though it has not burned as many acres of land as the Mendocino Complex, the Carr Fire has proven to be more deadly; seven people have died so far.
The cause of the fire was purely accidental. A couple was traveling with a trailer on July 23, 2018, when one of their tires went flat.
When the metal rim came into contact with the pavement, sparks flew into the roadside brush. Unfortunately, in such dry conditions, a small spark is all it takes for a catastrophe to begin.
That spark has lead to over 210K acres being burned.
So much devastation has been caused because of such a small accident, but it’s important to remember it as that, an accident.
When Redding, California resident Rachel Pilli first heard about the couple whose trailer was the origin of the fire, she began praying for them. She soon after visited a local church on Sunday 12, 2018 where she met a firefighter who said that his mother lived next door to the couple who started the fire.
He told Pilli that the wife had been blaming herself for all of the destruction and had been in hysterics over the whole situation. Pilli’s heart filled with compassion for this woman she had never met.
Later that same day she wrote a Facebook post asking any of her friends if they would like to join in sending a message of forgiveness and love to this couple.
“I was thinking if I could send a card, maybe my friends would also send a card,” she told KRCR News. Since she now knew where they live, she wanted to gather a few messages to deliver all at once.
When she woke up the next morning she was overwhelmed with sweet messages. She told ABC 10 it was “an ocean of compassion, of love and grace.”
Pilli’s message was then shared on the Facebook page called Carr Fire Stories where even more forgiving, supportive messages were shared. At the time of this article’s publication, almost 700 messages were shared on the post.
Hope Seth, the page’s administrator, is extremely proud of the community’s reaction.
“We had firefighters out there fighting the fire send notes, we’ve had counselors saying they would be willing to meet with the couple, we’ve had people who’ve lost everything and they are even saying it’s not your fault,” she told KRCR. “The grandfather Ed Bledsoe who lost his wife and grandchildren. His granddaughter, I believe, made a post about how they weren’t to blame.”
Seth plans on printing out the comments and pasting them onto physical cards for the couple to read.
Pilli says that there is not any pressure for the couple to respond. She just hopes that they “feel the love and forgive themselves.”
This is such a sweet story of love, community and forgiveness.
“I think the fire has forced us to look into each other’s eyes and discover the human kindness we have in us,” said Pilli. “I think it’s so beautiful what came out of this.”
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