I had a career in the fire business and can safely state that these people are living through a special stage of Hell. Even the ones who did not lose everything will suffer from this. This fire will effect at least three generations of each of the families who lost so much. There will be many divorces and there will be more than a few suicides from these events.


We offer prayers for them and there really isn't much more we can offer. These people will live with nightmares and a level of depression they haven't imagined. For their lifetimes, they will reach for, or search for something lost. This will hit them again and again. What to you do for a mother who has lost four generations of family photos, or seven generations of inherited heirlooms? What do you do about family pets or livestock that died a horrible, painful death? How deep is the anguish of a family, now a hundred miles from home and still not able to find a place to rest, or get a meal?


This is a disaster as surely as if it were the result of war.