AGOURA HILLS, Calif. – Will Thach is digging through some of his worldly possessions. He doesn't have much to dig through.

"Everything I had was burned. I left the fire with my pickup truck, my dog and my laptop. That was it. Everything else I owned burned,” Thach said.

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He's currently living in a trailer with his dog, Wellington, on the property where his home once stood. 

We met him a year ago, just a few days after the Woolsey fire when he was walking through the rubble of his former home. Now all the rubble has been cleared away and the scorched earth is covered in some new brush.

 “There's really nothing left. It was completely devastated. And all that is left is a little bit of the old foundation,” Thach said. 

The past year has been filled with a number of trials and tribulations.

“That was really tough in the beginning, just the shock of it, the shock of the loss, all of the treasured items, the irreplaceable heirlooms, family items that were gone," Thach said. "And so that was a grieving process that you had to go through. And everyone here on Malibou Lake who lost their house went through it.”

He says about half of his neighbors who lost their homes in the Woolsey fire chose to leave the area and find new places to live. He decided to stay and rebuild.

“I'm getting excited about rebuilding it. And that was part of the process for me, of getting over it was getting excited again about rebuilding,” he said.

Once he finally breaks ground and starts construction, he estimates it will be at least wo years before his new home is completed. Until then, this trailer will be home.

The lessons Thach has learned after the Woolsey fire include making sure you have homeowners insurance that covers your house, everything inside your home, and the cost to rebuild the structure, most of which he was not covered for.

Friends and neighbors started a GoFundMe to help him start over again.

And there were some lessons other learned in a crisis that are more difficult to put a price tag on.

“On a more personal level, I'd say what it's taught me is that there's nothing so permanent as your friendships and all the stuff that you own can be replaced. But the friendships are what pull you through times like this," he said. "And I just got a big lesson on how many wonderful friends I have, and what a great family I have.”

From losing everything to finding hope.