A park ranger from Hot Springs lost his home in the wildfire that destroyed a California town last week.
In the early hours last Friday, most of the Bishop family evacuated their southern California home due to an approaching fire. Catharine Bishop and her three young children -- Henry, Tucker and Ben -- left their house at 2 a.m. Her husband, Coby, remained at the house for a few hours before going to his job as a National Park Service ranger.
While his family found safety at a shelter, Coby Bishop found himself fleeing the fire with another ranger. When he eventually made it to headquarters, he was pulled aside and told that his house had been burned in the fire.
"They pulled me out of my meeting and said 'Your house burned, you lost everything,'" he said.
Coby Bishop is originally from Hot Springs and worked as a park ranger in Hot Springs National Park in the early 1990s. He has worked at various National Park Service units over the decades, including Buffalo National River and Shenandoah National Park. After his involvement in an officer-involved shooting at Shenandoah, Bishop moved to California seven years ago to start over.
Since moving there, fires have become part of their lives. Last year, the family had to evacuate their home once and there have been several times that they had to prepare to evacuate. He said that after this happened several times, they started keeping important documents and pictures at a place that would make it easier to flee the house quickly.
The Bishops are now living in a hotel room.
Their house was destroyed, but they didn't actually lose everything. The building connected to their house is fire resistant, and the Bishops used this building as a garage. Several of their vehicles, including a Jeep, a Nissan and a camper, survived which softened the blow a little, he said.
Coby and Catharine Bishop are both currently on administrative leave, since Catharine Bishop also works for the NPS. As numerous families in the community lost their homes, the schools are currently closed. The schools have made several counselors available, which Coby Bishop said they have used.
He said he isn't sure what the family's plan is moving forward. Right now, he said they are just taking it one day at a time. They have both kept busy since the fire, so he said it still hasn't really hit them yet that they have lost their home.
A few days later, the Bishops returned to their destroyed home. When they showed photos of the destruction to their sons, Coby Bishop said it finally hit home for their sons that all of their possessions are gone.
However, Coby Bishop said the family is doing well. He said events like this make you see the best in people, as the community has come together to help them. For example, a church created a GoFundMe account for the family. As of Tuesday, the fundraiser had raised $13,250 of its $15,000 goal.
Those who would like to donate can do so by going to https://www.gofundme.com/rebuild-the-bishops-home.
Local on 11/14/2018