5-year-old raises funds for Thomas Fire firefighter families 'who lost their daddies in the fire'
Faye Segraves, 5, was diligently saving her chore money for a My Little Pony until she heard the news about the Thomas Fire taking the life of Cal Fire engineer Cory Iverson.
Faye's father, Johnny, is a firefighter who was also battling the flames in Ventura County. When she heard that Iverson was a father, she decided to donate her money to "people who lost their daddies in the fire."
"It was a big fire. I saw video of it," she said to CNN. "A daddy [in] the fire died."
She started her own fund for the Wildland Firefighter Foundation with the $7 she had saved. Her mom, Kylee, then contributed tips she had earned from work to grow the fund to $112, according to CNN.
Over the next two days, Faye's fund goals kept growing. She initially wanted to raise $1,000. Her fund has now reached her goal of $10,000.
According to the fund page, "Wildland Firefighters families do not receive any benefits after a fatality for up to 3 months." Also, injured firefighters only receive 60 percent of their base pay.
The Segraves understand the toll wildfires can take on a family. Kylee Seagraves estimates her husband has worked 800 hours of overtime during 2017's wildfire season. In the midst of the wildfires, Kaylee told her daughter that bad things happen, "but we have to focus on good things."
