Inspirational recovery, California

Sierra and Canyon's Documentary page, where you can earn more about the project of teen siblings to create "a documentary about losing their home in the recent Thomas Fire, but more than that to inspire others to see the transformative experiences of loss and gain."

I noticed the wheelbarrow, in one of the photos. Other parts are more important and interesting, but the wheelbarrow earned it a spot here.

Crushed in Australia

Bob Collier, of Canberra, wrote:

My old wheelbarrow after it was crushed by the tail end of a branch that dropped from a huge gum tree we had in our front garden at the time; during the night, hours after I'd finished work for the day fortunately (the tree was subsequently removed).

Bush Fire Victim

Photo and notes from Annie Regan, in Australia:

This is what was left of our wheelbarrow (it had a green plastic tub) after the 2009 Black Saturday bush fires. http://www.blacksaturdaybushfires.com.au

I had moved the wheelbarrow out to the front of our property to fill up with leaf litter from under a huge gum tree, as part of our fire preparation. I'd done a few loads in the week leading up to the fires, and had left it there to do some more when I got a chance. It was sitting there when the fire went through (me removing more leaf litter wouldn't have made any difference, nothing could have stopped the fire at this stage). Our house is about 10m behind me when I took this photo - the house was untouched but the ground all around on either side was burnt like this. We had an oak tree to the south, and the fire approached from that direction. The oak tree was shrivelled and dry on the southern side, the shed next to the tree burnt down, and the fire split and went either side of the tree (and our house) and then met again in the paddock to the north. So we were extremely lucky (we weren't home, we'd evacuated a few hours earlier).

Annie Regan