Advertisement

Man finds wife's wedding ring in ashes of home that burned down in devastating California wildfire

The wildfires ripping through California have engulfed thousands of homes, but one man found a treasured possession still intact when he returned to the spot where his house once stood.

Jake Olsen, an officer with the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, was helping to evacuate a retirement community while his own home in Paradise, Calif., burned to the ground in the Camp Fire. His wife and four children got out safely — and he even found his wife’s wedding ring among the rubble, as Houston news station KRIV reports.

“It’s just amazing,” he told Inside Edition. “I just didn’t think we were going to find it, but we had to try.”

His wife had told him that she left the ring on a countertop, so he and a colleague searched near that spot. Eventually they spotted the ring in the ashes, Olsen told Inside Edition.

As he put it, “It’s just a miracle.”

His whole family was affected by the fires; his parents, in-laws, and other relatives also lost their homes. A local church is currently housing and feeding the Olsens, and a fund was set up on GoFundMe through the California Wildlife Officers Foundation to help them get back on their feet.

The warden moved his family to Paradise to follow his dream of becoming a wildlife officer, according to the GoFundMe page: “His whole family moved here to support him and then the Camp Fire happened.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.