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Woolsey Fire destroys home of Douglas Freeman High grad

Posted at 12:08 AM, Nov 12, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-12 00:22:58-05

MALIBU, Calif – The Woolsey and Hill fires raging near Los Angeles have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes, including a woman who grew up in Richmond.

Catharine Beverly-Bishop, who graduated from Douglas Freeman High School, now lives with her family in Malibu, California.

She and her husband both work for the National Park Service in the Santa Monica Mountains.

"We've been through it before where we've packed everything up, and then we come back,” Beverly-Bishop said.

Catharine Beverly-Bishop

Catharine Beverly-Bishop

The Woolsey Fire has charred more than 80,000 acres of southern California, destroying movie sets, celebrity homes and countless buildings.

"Some of them are just gone completely," Beverly-Bishop said. "You probably wouldn't knowing driving by that anything was ever there."

The family's home was in the path of the Woolsey Fire, so Beverly-Bishop evacuated with their boys and their pets while her husband went to work.

The Beverly-Bishop family.

The Beverly-Bishop family.

"Working the incident, and watching our park burn down,” Beverly-Bishop said. “We lost our house."

Beverly-Bishop said it is too early to think next steps for her family. Instead, her family is focused on how the worst of situations can bring out the best in people.

"We have a family from the baseball league that's bringing us macaroni and cheese tonight at the hotel,” Beverly-Bishop said. "It's times like these where people just band together. I just feel so much love and hope."

A church friend set up a GoFund Me account to help the Bishop family rebuild.

The three wildfires have destroyed a total of 192,000 acres so far combined. And crews are still working to contain the flames.

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