But one 9-year-old saw another tragedy amid the rubble.
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Aarna Chalasani is making sure the kids impacted by the Creek Fire are not forgotten.
She posted a video on GoFundMe asking for help to create Halloween goodie bags.
With some donations from her own piggy bank, her small gesture turned into a big service, raising $1,200.
"I made 130 goodie bags, and finally the rest of the money will be for the jackets for the kids who lost their homes," she says.
"We are going to make sure that every child gets a jacket for the winter."
But her embers of kindness are now growing into a larger effort to keep the community warm inside and out.
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On Tuesday, Central Valley Big Brother Big Sisters donated $5,000 to make sure every mountain student gets a coat ahead of the colder temperatures.
Scott and Amy Machado are the organizers of the group Mountain Strong
and plan to embroider the motto on every jacket to remind everyone they can persevere.
"Even the children who may have not lost everything in the fire, still needed some warmth for the winter - we didn't want them to feel that just because a disaster may have happened to one family, they were less deserving," they say.
M & M embroidery will be working with the schools to distribute the coats to families.