How residents on the Central Coast are helping wildfire victims

As fires continue to devastate the North Bay many on the Central Coast are reaching out to lend a helping hand.

Residents and businesses on the Central Coast have been collecting donations to bring up to evacuation centers.

Toni Kranich, whose son lives in Petaluma says once she saw the devastation she had to do something. That’s when she reached out to her friends on facebook and donations began pouring in. “I just can’t even believe what’s going on and what they’re going through, everybody just wants to help, in anyway they can and this (donating) is something they can do.”

Local businesses are also helping. Scotts Valley Feed has teamed up with other local businesses and residents to get animal supplies to shelters. They have already taken 3 truck loads filled with hay, cat and dog food, and other supplies to the shelters. For the time being they are accepting monetary donations that will go straight to helping animals that are injured or in need of something else.

Many evacuation centers have reached capacity as far as what they can take, but there are still ways to help. Many victims of the fires do not have a place to store items that are being donated. Recovery.org is an organization that can pair you up with an individual or family that has been impacted and you can directly help them with what they need.

Volunteers tell KION that money is the number one need right now, but the best way to donate items is to register with sonomacounty.recovers.org as a volunteer/donor or click here.

If you rent your home through AirBnb, there is also an option to put your rental up as a short or long-term home for displaced people in the event of a disaster. You can locate that information here.

There will also be a donation drive Friday October 13th at 1100 Soquel Avenue in Santa Cruz from 11am-3pm, also Saturday October 14th at KMart in Scotts Valley from 8am-7pm.