California wildfires hit close to home for native Johnson

HAMPTON, Ga. -- The very hills that Jimmie Johnson traversed on his motorcycle as a young boy are now charred by the wildfires scorching Southern California.

Care-free memories of riding wide-open in the hills east of San Diego are now blemished and overshadowed by daily headlines of thousands of residents, in and around his hometown, displaced and homeless. Their homes have been reduced to ashes.

You can help, too

For more information regarding donation locations, visit the Red Cross or Lowe's online.

• www.redcross.org
• www.lowes.com

"It's really the worst reality that you would ever face out there living in Southern California," said Johnson, 32, who grew up in El Cajon and likely learned the family evacuation plan before his own street address. Knowing how to escape from rampant flames -- what to do and where to go -- was that important.

And helping those affected by the recent tragedy is equally important.

Johnson, along with his team owner Rick Hendrick and sponsor Lowe's, will donate all winnings from Sunday's Nextel Cup race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway to the American Red Cross relief effort. The purse money will benefit thousands of residents burdened by the fires.

The Red Cross is providing residents, firefighters and first responders with shelter, food, water, comfort kits as well as medical and mental health services. The California wildfires have burned almost half a million acres and forced the evacuation of more than a million residents.

"I can remember a couple of times as a kid growing up and being evacuated out of the area. The most recent big fire that went through there [El Cajon] took down the neighborhood where I grew up," said Johnson after Nextel Cup practice in Atlanta this weekend.

The driver has seen the devastation first-hand. And while the average elementary student was learning not to talk to strangers, Johnson was already learning fire prevention and fire safety training.

"That was a class that we'd have once or twice a year," he said. "It's something you grew up with and it's a reality you'd have to face."

When news of an emerging wildfire would break, knowing it was in the valley below his home, Johnson became panic stricken.

Living on top of a hill, he said, Johnson always feared he and his family would be trapped if the flames blazed toward his home. But his parents taught him if the fire was burning up one side of the hill then evacuate down the other side.

"It was just a lot of things we were faced with as a kid and scared us," he said. "There were a few fires that were close and my parents said, 'Alright let's get out of here. We're just going to leave ourselves before we get trapped up here.'" (Continued)