KYLE is calling on his fans for help.
After witnessing the devastation caused by the Thomas Fire in Southern California this week, the "iSpy" rapper asked his followers to donate to wildlife relief funds. KYLE made the request via Instagram on Tuesday, after he saw his childhood home in Ventura completely destroyed.
"Just saw the house I grew up in in ashes," he wrote. "This is so hard to watch. Such a beautiful city with so many amazing people whose lives have been devastated by this fire. My neighborhood is in ashes; all of my old neighbors and so many more have lost everything. The Ventura county fire department has been working incredibly hard to save the city, but we still have a long fight ahead of us and we all will need to step up and lend a hand to someone in need."
KYLE has since conducted interviews with outlets like TMZ, Ebro Darden’s Beats 1 Radio show, and Billboard, with the intention of raising awareness about the wildfires and the ways people can help. He told Billboard he has never witnessed a fire like this throughout all the years he's lived in California.
"I was in the studio [in Los Angeles] when I first found out […] It kind of killed the mood of the song. So I stopped doing that and started researching what was happening," he explained. "It didn’t hit my neighborhood yet when it was burning at 3 a.m.—like, I fell asleep thinking, ‘Wow, that’d be crazy if it actually hit my neighborhood.’ You never think anything like that is gonna affect you. You see all these disasters happen, and you never think they’re gonna happen to you. But then I wake up the next morning [Tuesday], and I turn on the news to see what’s happening and, you know, lo and behold, they’re on my street. Filming my house. And I was like, ‘Wow.’"
KYLE also told everyone affected to "stay strong," and encouraged his fans to donate to the Thomas Fire Fund by texting "UWVC" to 41444.
The blaze, which began Monday, has spread to 65,000 acres and is threatening more than 12,000 structures in Southern California. The New York Times reports more than 1,700 firefighters were in Ventura County on Wednesday morning working to contain the wildfire. Thousands of people in the Los Angeles and Ventura area have been ordered to evacuate.
