Newlyweds family home, wedding keepsakes destroyed in Mountain Fire

Just days after the happiest day of their lives, a newly married couple learned that their family’s Camarillo home burned to the ground during the Mountain Fire, destroying everything in sight, including irreplaceable keepsakes from their wedding.  

Brittany Berret and Jaime Sifontes were on top of the world after celebrating their nuptials in Paso Robles, something they’d been working toward for a long time.  

Then, four days after their wedding, while they were in Monterey for their honeymoon, Berret’s parents called to tell the couple about the Mountain Fire.  

“We were supposed to leave anyway on Wednesday to come home,” Berret explained. “We had planned to stay the entire day, but got a call from my mom in the morning letting us know there was a fire nearby in the canyon but typically we don’t worry about that because it’s never really jumped the 118.”  

About two hours into their drive home, her parents learned on KTLA that their house had gone up in flames. They broke the heartbreaking news to the newlyweds. 

“It felt like the longest car ride in my entire life,” Berret recalled. “There wasn’t really much we could do, so you just start thinking about everything that’s in that house, all the memories. That’s the only house I’ve ever known.”  

Sifontes and Berret lost everything from their wedding day.  

“My wedding dress, all of our registry gifts. We had been living with them, kind of saving everything that we didn’t have space for in their house,” Berret said. “Like, everything we were saving and building for our future.”  

For his part, Sifontes, who lived at the family home for five years, said his memories of the home are very strong as well.  

“It felt like a home to me. I’m very close with my wife’s family, obviously,” he said.  

After learning what happened to the young couple, their wedding planner organized a GoFundme campaign to help them, and their family rebuild their home and their lives.  

“I’m immensely grateful for the family I have, helping them. I’m so grateful to Camarillo and just working to move forward,” Sifontes said.