Man finds wife's wedding ring in ruins of home burned down in Californian fires

The bushfires 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, California burned to the ground in the ‘Camp Fire’.

His wife and four children got out safely but the woman left her wedding ring behind in the kitchen as she fled.

When the officer returned to his charred home his wife had told him that she left the ring on a countertop, he and a colleague searched near that spot.

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

“It’s just a miracle,” he added.

Mr Olsen’s 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.”