Some 90,0000 people in the United States are awaiting a kidney donation. One California mother took it into her own hands to try and get a donor, and you've probably already seen her plea for help.Along northbound Interstate 5 by the Sacramento International Airport stands a billboard. "I need a kidney transplant," said Cynthia Hall. Hall hopes that with her billboard she will reach the right person. "Six years ago, I got a call from my doctor that my kidneys are severely damaged," Hall said. Her husband Art said they knew they would reach the point where they needed to expand their outreach one day. "We have been doing a homegrown campaign, if you will," Art said. "Making flyers, putting them up at businesses. We have done social media campaigns. I thought I need to take this to the next level to see what's possible to do and that's where I thought I would try a billboard." That's when Marquee Media received a call from a friend who heard about the Hall family."When we formed our company, we wanted to have business with purpose. This is the highest purpose we can probably do," said Jeff Joaquin with Marquee Media. There are 11 billboards across the Sacramento, California, region, reaching about 2 million people every week. There are also dozens of billboards across the country. "We help companies and brands sell products, help their businesses along, but we can have a higher calling to help somebody get a kidney and save a life, it's just something immeasurable," Joaquin said. The Hall family hopes it raises more awareness about kidney diseases."There are millions of people out there with this disease and they do not know they have it," Cynthia said. "If anything comes of all this, besides her getting a kidney donor, is raising the awareness of kidney disease out there," Art said.The hope is that on their four-year wedding anniversary, they will get the call that will give Cynthia a second chance at life. "It means the world to us and my son, he's 14. I want to see him go to college, I want to see him get married, I want to be with him and this will give me a chance to live my life to the fullest," Cynthia said.If you would like to help you can reach the Hall family at akidneyforcynthia@gmail.com or at 916-276-7603.Watch the video above for the full story.

A little bit of good news and a lot of luck coming out of a destructive wildfire burning near the California-Oregon border as a photojournalist saved a puppy wandering around the ruins of the McKinney Fire.Jonathan Rivas said he arrived at the community of Klamath River early Saturday morning, just hours after the wildfire broke out where he said there was a lot of damage, with trees and homes burned. Rivas said he was finishing filming one neighborhood when he heard yelping. "I heard a yelp in the distance, but I didn't really know what it was, I thought it was an injured deer or one of the wildlife that's there," the AIO Filmz photojournalist said. "All of a sudden, this little puppy comes and runs up to me. I was super shocked to see that come from the rubble there."The puppy was clearly excited to see Rivas in the video.Watch the full rescue below The puppy allowed Rivas to pick him up and put him in the back of his car. "He was very excited, he was wagging his tail, I am talking to him like I'm talking to my dog, I picked him up, put him in the trunk of my car," Rivas said.He gave him some water before dropping him off at a shelter. Rivas posted the video on social media, where he found the puppy's family. The puppy has been reunited with its family. "Reuniting it with their family and after hearing their story, it makes me feel good, I am just happy, I was at the right place at the right time," Rivas said.

A little bit of good news and a lot of luck coming out of a destructive wildfire burning near the California-Oregon border as a photojournalist saved a puppy wandering around the ruins of the McKinney Fire.

Jonathan Rivas said he arrived at the community of Klamath River early Saturday morning, just hours after the wildfire broke out where he said there was a lot of damage, with trees and homes burned.

Rivas said he was finishing filming one neighborhood when he heard yelping.

"I heard a yelp in the distance, but I didn't really know what it was, I thought it was an injured deer or one of the wildlife that's there," the AIO Filmz photojournalist said. "All of a sudden, this little puppy comes and runs up to me. I was super shocked to see that come from the rubble there."

The puppy was clearly excited to see Rivas in the video.

Watch the full rescue below

The puppy allowed Rivas to pick him up and put him in the back of his car.

"He was very excited, he was wagging his tail, I am talking to him like I'm talking to my dog, I picked him up, put him in the trunk of my car," Rivas said.

AIO FILMZ

He gave him some water before dropping him off at a shelter.

Rivas posted the video on social media, where he found the puppy's family. The puppy has been reunited with its family.

"Reuniting it with their family and after hearing their story, it makes me feel good, I am just happy, I was at the right place at the right time," Rivas said.

Nearly six months after a California family and their dog died of extreme heat exhaustion and dehydration while hiking, phone data was released on Thursday that shows a text message and several phone calls did not go through due to poor cellphone reception.John Gerrish, his wife, Ellen Chung, their 1-year-old daughter, Miju, and their dog were walking in extreme heat in a remote area close to the Merced River in the Sierra National Forest last August before they died.Jonathan Gerrish's phone showed the family took multiple photos throughout their hike from 7:44 to 10:29 a.m., according to the release. At 12:25 p.m, they took a screenshot of their location on the trail map.A single text message at 11:56 a.m. saying, "Can you help us. On savage lundy trail heading back to Hites cove trail. No water or ver (over) heating with baby" did not go through due to not having cell service in the area, the release said. Five calls were also found to have been attempted but were not successful due to the same reason. The first was at 12:09 p.m. and the last four were attempted within one minute of each other at 12:36 p.m. They were found dead on Aug. 17 just 1.6 miles from their vehicle after a family friend reported them missing. In October, the cause of death for all three family members was determined to be hyperthermia and dehydration. Temperatures ranged from 107 to 109 degrees Fahrenheit and their water container was empty, authorities said.The details found on the phone support the findings of a heat-related incident, authorities said. "The cellphone data results were the last thing both the family and detectives were waiting on. The extracted information confirms our initial findings. I am very proud of my team and our partner agencies for all the work they put in. Their dedication has allowed us to close this case and answer lingering questions the family had, bringing them a little peace," Mariposa County Sheriff Jeremy Briese said.

Thousands of Northern California homes were threatened Sunday by the nation's largest wildfire and officials warned the danger of new blazes erupting across the West was high because of unstable weather.Thunderstorms that moved in starting Friday didn't produce much rain but whipped up winds and generated lightning strikes across the northern Sierra where crews were battling the month-old Dixie Fire. Extreme heat returned Sunday with temperatures expected to top 100 degrees (38 Celsius).“We're definitely still dealing with the possibility of lightning. Winds are all over the place. Things are going to be pretty unstable for the next couple days,” said fire spokesman Edwin Zuniga.Gusts of up to 50 mph (80 kph) on Saturday pushed flames closer to Janesville, a town of about 1,500 people just east of Greenville, the small gold rush-era community decimated by the fire 10 days ago.James Reichle evacuated from Greenville and has been sleeping with his dog in a trailer outside a church. His home survived the flames but he's been unable to return because the roads are closed. He said he feels for his neighbors at the evacuation center who lost everything.“These are all people who either don’t have a home or don’t have access to a home. I still have a house standing, no damage. But I can’t get into it,” he said Saturday.The Dixie Fire was the largest among more than 100 big blazes burning in more than a dozen states in the West, a region seared by drought and hot, bone-dry weather that turned forests, brushlands, meadows and pastures into tinder.The U.S. Forest Service said Friday it is operating in crisis mode, fully deploying firefighters and maxing out its support system.The roughly 21,000 federal firefighters working on the ground is more than double the number of firefighters sent to contain forest fires at this time a year ago, said Anthony Scardina, a deputy forester for the agency’s Pacific Southwest region.More than 6,000 firefighters alone were battling the Dixie Fire, which has ravaged nearly 867 square miles (2,246 square kilometers) — an area the size of Tokyo. It was 31% contained on Sunday.Near Taylorsville, California, some firefighters on Sunday were monitoring a bear cub who was possibly orphaned in the fire. The emaciated cub was awaiting extraction from the burn-scarred area by a wildlife rescue team.“Generally if you see them with a sow or a mother bear, they’ll stay with the mother bear and run off,” said firefighter Johnnie Macy, who was deployed from Golden, Colorado to battle the Dixie Fire. “This bear hasn’t done that, so because of that we think that the bear’s orphaned as a result of the fire.”More than 1,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed and nearly 15,000 structures were still under threat.The cause has not been determined. Pacific Gas and Electric has said the fire may have been sparked when a tree fell on its power line.A few hundred miles to the south, evacuations were ordered Sunday after a blaze that broke out the night before churned through California forestland near the remote community of Omo Ranch. There was no containment of the Caldor Fire burning in El Dorado County, about 60 miles (73 kilometers) east of Sacramento.Meanwhile, a small wildfire that blew up Saturday east of Salt Lake City, temporarily shutting down Interstate 80 and leading to evacuation orders for some 8,000 residences, was caused by a vehicle with a malfunctioning catalytic converter, Utah Fire Info said.The Parleys Canyon Fire, estimated at just under a square mile (2.4 square kilometers), calmed significantly overnight and homes were no longer threatened, officials said Sunday.In southeastern Montana, firefighters gained ground on a pair of blazes that chewed through vast rangelands and at one point threatened the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.The fires were caused by heat from coal seams, the deposits of coal found in the ground in the area, said Peggy Miller, a spokeswoman for the fires.Mandatory evacuations for the tribal headquarters town of Lame Deer were lifted Sunday, but remained in place for those with medical conditions. Heavy smoke led to unhealthy air quality across much of the state early Sunday afternoon, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality.Smoke also drove air pollution levels to unhealthy or very unhealthy levels in parts of Northern California, Oregon and Idaho.In southeastern Oregon, two wildfires started by lightning Thursday spread rapidly through a landscape sucked dry by extreme drought.Hot weather and bone-dry conditions in Oregon could increase fire risks through the weekend, forecasters said.Climate change has made the U.S. West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.