They Were 75 Years Together And Died In The California Fires

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

The fires in Northern California that have already claimed 21 lives and that have been unleashing a true hell that has spread over more than 160,000 acres since Sunday, ended the life of one of the longest-lived couples in the state: a couple who he was 75 years married.

As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Napa County Sheriff's Office confirmed that Charles and Sara Rippey, 100 and 98 years old, respectively, are two of the fatal victims of this incident. Upon confirming the news, his granddaughter, Ruby Gibney, commented that unfortunately her grandparents were unable to escape from her home while the fire caught her residence.

Speaking to NBC, Chuck Rippey, one of the couple's children, said that the bodies of his parents were discovered together and that, although he needed a walker, he had managed to reach her.

Rippey also related that because of how quickly the fire was consuming their home, there was no time for the person in charge of caring for them to rescue them. "Before he knew it, the roof was melting," he said. "So it was very fast, very fast."

Another of his children, Mike, commented that his parents had spent their entire lives together. Their relationship had started in elementary school in a small Wisconsin town called Hartford. That was almost 90 years ago.

Lamenting what happened, her granddaughter said that as hard as it is to see how this exemplary love story came to an end, there could still be something more tragic: "The worst thing would have been that one had survived without the other."