ST. LOUIS – The community has already raised thousands of dollars for a St. Louis native and his family who lost their home and all of their belongings in a California wildfire.

St. Louis native Brian Perry and his young family were forced to leave their home just north of Los Angeles Tuesday once they caught wind of the threat the Eaton Fire could pose.

“We just packed up and left. We didn’t waste any time,” Perry told FOX 2 Thursday. “I'm really grateful for that, because we got to a friend's house, we stayed their overnight, and we woke up in the morning to learn that the fire had overtaken our neighborhood.”

Perry, a Gateway Tech and Mizzou grad, moved to California in 2006. He and his wife, Kwynn, along with their 14-year-old son, Ellison, and their dog, Tendo, have lived in their home north of Los Angeles near Pasadena for the past 12 years.

Their home is in the foothills of Mount Wilson, also in the heart of the Eaton Fire.

Perry said when they left, they didn’t realize just how devastating the fire would become.

“We didn't say goodbye to that place. We didn't leave like we were leaving forever. So, each hour that passes, one of us has a realization of something we wish we had gotten,” he said.

Perry, a middle school principal at a local school district, said he’s not one to ask for help under any usual circumstances. But right now, his family needs it. Last year, their insurance company stopped offering fire insurance due to the recent history of wildfires in the state.

If you’d like to help the family, you can donate to their GoFundMe here.