A 16-year-old boy in the South Bay who says he could no longer sit on the sidelines as wildfires ripped across Southern California put his tech skills to work and created a website to help victims move forward.
Ruben Varghese, a junior at Cupertino High School, launched save-la.org with the hopes it will give fire victims one place to go to access all the services they need.
"I wanted to make it so if you wanted to help or if you needed help, it could all be in one website, a one-stop shop," Varghese said.
For fire survivors, the website provides everything from recovery centers to links to state and federal agencies as well as information on where to turn in the event of job loss. The site also has information for people wanting to donate cash, supplies or help in other ways.
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"For example, you can volunteer your house for shelter if someone's house got burned down," Varghese said.
Varghese said he spent hours researching and vetting the agencies on his website.
He said he doesn't personally know any fire victims but is concerned about fellow volleyball players he knows in the area.
"I just want the people who got victimized by these fires to have some sort of home and shelter and some way of living in this hard time," he said."