Southern California couple find wedding ring in ashes of wildfire
SAN FRANCISCO: As wildfires destroyed dozens of homes and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents in California, at least one couple had a bit of good news.
Ishu and Laura Rao searched the ashes of their incinerated Santa Barbara County home and found their prize: Laura’s wedding and engagement rings.
She had taken them off before going to sleep Friday and had no time to retrieve them when the couple escaped the fast-moving blaze Holiday Fire with Ishu’s two daughters, their three dogs and a cat, said Mike Eliason, a spokesman with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
The married couple of eight months were escorted back to their property to hunt for the rings.
“Wouldn’t have believe it, but they found them,” Eliason said. They were damaged and charred, but still recognisable. Ishu Rao then dropped to one knee, put the rings on her finger and proposed all over again. The rings still fit, Eliason said, “And she said yes.”
The fire that destroyed their home was 80 per cent contained early Monday, Eliason said. “We’re just mopping up hot-spots now.”
Elsewhere, some firefighters were gaining ground in containing the wildfires in California. Others just held the lines against the blazes feeding off the dry brush in the California heat, officials said.
Firefighters should get some more good news this week with cooler temperatures, the National Weather Service said. Scorching heat, high winds and low humidity have fanned dozens of fires across the western United States this summer.
The fires had burned more than 2.9 million acres through Friday, already more than the annual average of about 2.4 million acres over the past 10 years, according to the National Interagency Fire Centre. — Reuters