As smoke still lingers in the air in Northern California in the aftermath of wildfires that have claimed the lives of 41 people and destroyed countless homes and property — the people say that the love in the air is thicker than the smoke.
And stories like Natasha Wallace’s prove that it’s true.
She fled the flames on her bike with her 70 lb. pit bull in a duffle bag to save both their lives. She refused to leave her child/dog behind. And thanks to a total stranger, they made it the rest of the way to safety in a truck.
Thanks to the kindness of even more strangers, $19,000 has been donated to her so she can restart her life.
According to Fox 40, Wallace, a Sana Rosa Junior College soccer player, was studying across town at 2 a.m. when she saw flames on the freeway and knew she had to immediately evacuate.
“It was like a flamethrower,” Wallace told The Dodo. “I knew how fast the fire was going. It was really scary.”
She ran to her house, grabbed a few things, and put her 4-year-old dog Bently in her Honda.
“I would never part ways with my dog. ever,” Wallace told Fox 40. “That’s my ride or die. Oh my God, literally.”
She was stuck in some pretty bad traffic when she decided it was time to ditch her car, but not her dog.
“I sat in my car for about two minutes, and I could see the fire getting closer. I said, ‘I’m not burning in my car,’” Wallace told The Dodo. “So, I turned around and went back to the house.”
She ditched everything she had packed in her car, dumped out a duffel bag of clothes and told all 70 lbs of Bently to get inside the bag. He knew something was wrong and he hopped right in.
She slung the bag around her neck hopped on her bike and started peddling to safety.
“It was hard. I was trying to avoid the branches and everything on the road. The first 2 miles were OK. I was going off pure adrenaline, or supermom strength,” she said. “Bentley just sat there the whole time, like a super good boy. His well-being was the only thing I cared about at that point.”
She made it a few miles down her road when a man named Paul Johnson pulled over in his truck and offered to drive them the rest of the way.
She and Bently stayed at a shelter and are now with relatives.
“You can pack hundreds of dollars worth of material things, but my dog is priceless,” she says.
She started a GoFundMe page and is seeking donations to fund the cost of rebuilding her life. You can check out that page here.
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