71 people are dead and thousands in Butte County are without a home Thursday as the camp fire is continuing to tear through neighborhoods.
However, some good news did transpire for those displaced by the fire. A local Bakersfield boutique is now in the process of sending supplies to Paradise.
23ABC News spent the day at the Spoiled Rotten Boutique and gained further insight into what inspired the donation drive.
After Spoiled Rotten Boutique owners continued to hear stories from the Paradise community including one from their dear friend and Bakersfield resident Cheryl Bethel they could no longer sit back and watch the fires unfold any longer without stepping in.
"My families up there...my mom, my sister, my dad, my other sister my uncle my granny they all made it out safe thank God. My granny did lose her house but she's in good spirits so that's good but I mean their town is gone, everything is gone, 95 percent,work, jobs, grocery stores, food, there's no water, no power," Bakersfield resident Cheryl Bethel said.
According to Cal Fire, more than 9,000 homes have burned, 2,076 other buildings have been completely wiped out and 336 commercial building are also now gone. Bethel and her friends at Spoiled Rotten Boutique in Bakersfield decided this Monday to do their part too, "We're collecting donations for the victims of the camp fire in Paradise and Magalia California. We are going through and sorting out all of the clothes, all of the toiletries, the blankets, all of the household goods getting ready to ship them out on Sunday morning."Bethel said.
The boutiques social media post lead to hundreds of donated items from the community that filled the parking lot. Organizations like Dignity Health donated baby formula to the cause and the General Ford Trucking company donated a drivers time and a semi truck to help get the donations from the boutique to those in need. "So we've contacted the Red Cross, we've contacted campfirebutte.recovers.org they've given us multiple drop off spots, they're taking everything so we're ready to role Sunday morning," Bethel said.
Bethel and her Spoiled Rotten Boutique team members spent the last five days sorting through donations to make sure everything is ready for use by those who need it in Paradise, "We're going through all of the bags to make sure we are sending quality stuff. these are people too and we want them to have the best since they don't have anything anymore and we want it to be as easy as possible, we want them to be like ready to go, ready made, ready to wear," Bethel said.
Supplies were not the only things that community members of Bakersfield donated to the camp fire victims, many also stopped by to leave monetary donations, "The last count was around a thousand so it's been great like I said, people are just amazing," Bethel said they will also ensure those proceeds support the same effort, "What we plan to do with that is when we get all of this loaded up and ready to go and we have an inventory, whatever we don't have the most of and people need we're going to buy it and that's what we're going to do."
As of now the boutique is no longer accepting clothes but they are still accepting batteries, gift cards, toiletries, water and more. If you would like to donate to camp fire victims stop by their Spoiled Rotten Boutique parking lot located at 10014 Rosedale Hwy #7, Bakersfield, CA 93312 before 7 p.m. tomorrow night or you can call them at 661-829-2905. You can also drop off baby, mens, and women hygiene products and gift card donations to Motor City Buick GMC at 3101 Pacheco Rd, Bakersfield, CA 9331 or you can call 661-805-3627.
