An unusually active fire season and a close call with the owners’ Nipomo home this summer spurred the online printing company into action.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF. – Wildfires in California claim thousands of acres annually, devastating wildlands, families, and entire communities indiscriminately. This summer the team at the online printing company DocuCopies.com had an unusually intimate brush with the threat as a local fire threatened the home of the company’s owners, which inspired them to donate $1,000 to the San Luis Obispo Fire Safe Council.

The fast-acting and fearless skills of SLO firefighters kept the flames in Nipomo from reaching the properties and homes of nearby residents until it could be extinguished. Nonetheless, David and Karen Pressley, who founded the now-national printing company as a mom-and-pop print shop in Wisconsin 35 years ago, had to flee their home with their granddaughter and pets after just moving into the neighborhood that week.

“You might watch and read the news 24/7, but something changes when you can see the glow of the fire and smell the smoke in the air,” said David, the company’s president and CEO. “It gave us a new outlook on the danger and how quickly everything you have can be taken. More than that though, we felt overwhelming appreciation for the men and women who fight fires to keep their communities, their neighbors and their families safe. They are true heroes.”

The donation to the Fire Safe Council, a non-profit whose responsibilities include managing donations from the public, pushes public education and proficient knowledge in fire safety and provides additional resources to those working in the firefighting communities.

Helping keep firefighters safe and well-equipped is an investment in their community, but the company also have their eyes and hearts on their fellow state residents to the north who, at the time of this release, are experiencing the devastation of wildfires at unprecedented levels. The team is researching several options and plan to donate to a non-profit helping victims of the Northern California fires this month.

For more information on California wildfires, safety tips and prevention tips, visit the SLO County Fire Safe Council at http://www.fscslo.org. For more information on DocuCopies.com and their color printing, book making and binding services, visit them online at www.DocuCopies.com.