9-year-old A's fan pens emotional letter after losing memorabilia in house fire

Nine-year-old Loren Jade Smith is one of many Northern Californians to lose their home as wildfires continue to devastate parts of the region. The Santa Rosa resident and avid baseball fan wrote a touching letter to the Oakland Athletics after losing all of his team memorabilia when his family's house burned down.

The letter reads:

I love watching your A's games. I want to be an A's player and I play at Mark West Little League in Santa Rosa. I played baseball in my backyard all day loving the A's and making up my own game. In my backyard they won six World Series in a row. But my house burned down in the Santa Rosa fire and my saddest things were my baseball collection cards, my 17 jerseys and 10 hats and my baseball from the game, and also a ball signed by the whole team and Rickey Henderson and Bob Melvin. I am 9 years old and I had a major league baseball and it all burned up, so sad. I know you are not all together but hope they get this.

The letter caught the attention of team president Dave Kaval, who said the organization would send the family new Athletics gear.

The number of people under evacuation orders is finally beginning to decline as winds die down Sunday. The Associated Press estimates about 5,700 "homes and other structures" have been destroyed, and at least 40 deaths are currently attributed to the fires. That figure is expected to rise as hundreds of people are missing.