California parish serves as refuge amid damaging wildfire

CNA Staff, Nov 11, 2024 / 17:55 pm

A Catholic parish in Ventura County, California, has been serving as an evacuation shelter in recent days as a major wildfire continues to burn nearby, destroying homes and displacing community members. 

The blaze, dubbed the Mountain Fire, erupted last week amid high winds and dry, fire-prone conditions. According to the local VC Star newspaper, the fire has burned roughly 32 square miles, destroyed dozens of homes, sent residents to the hospital, and forced widespread evacuations. 

An army of some 2,800 fire personnel had the conflagration about one-third contained as of Monday morning. Conditions are expected to worsen Tuesday, with dry and gusty conditions forecasted before a cooldown and possible showers later in the week. 

Padre Serra Parish in Camarillo, California, was designated as an official evacuation site by Ventura County Emergency Services and the American Red Cross beginning on Nov. 6. The large parish — a popular wedding venue — sheltered dozens of evacuees overnight, while the Red Cross provided food and water, medical care, sleeping cots and blankets, and trained staff. 

Teresa Runyon, a pastoral associate at Padre Serra, told CNA in an email that after local fires in 2017 and 2018, pastor Father Patrick Mullen “felt our parish should do more to help our community in a time of crisis and disaster.”

“Our hall, known as Serra Center, is one of the largest venues in Ventura County. With multiple rooms, ample space, parking, patio, and grass area, we felt it could serve as an evacuation shelter in the future,” Runyon said. 

By Wednesday afternoon, over 100 evacuees were in the center, she said, including many Padre Serra parishioners. People waited there for news about their homes, making plans to either stay at the parish or with family or friends. Approximately 50 people spent the first night in the center, Runyon said. 

At the same time, Runyon said the parish’s phone began to ring off the hook. Parishioners and Ventura County residents and businesses were offering to come and volunteer to help the people at the shelter, or offering gifts of money, water, clothing, children’s toys, rooms, or pet sheltering.

Ironically, though, Runyon said the offers of help turned out to not be necessary as the Red Cross “had everything needed, and wanted to keep the traffic at the parish limited to evacuees and essential volunteers.”

Still, “our receptionist, Sister Lana, took every call and returned every message with gratitude and information about how to help … I estimate over the three days our parish office and staff received upwards of 300 calls, emails, and texts [offering help],” Runyon said. 

Runyon said she knows of at least five parishioners who lost their homes. Mullen, the pastor, is away from the parish on sabbatical through the end of November but has “called these parishioners personally. He is praying and helping as best he can from a distance,” she said. 

By the weekend, the number of evacuees was less than 25. The evacuation shelter officially closed on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 10, only after every evacuee was rehomed, she said. 

“Now efforts shift to recovery. Our parish has established a disaster relief fund. Donations will go towards recovery efforts, assisting those families through these next weeks and months of rebuilding. Our conference of St. Vincent De Paul is also standing by to help,” Runyon continued. 

She noted that the Gospel reading for Nov. 3, the Sunday before the Mountain Fire began, was Christ’s explanation of the two greatest commandments: to love God and to love one’s neighbor. 

“No greater example of living these commandments could be seen than by the generosity and care for the Camarillo community demonstrated last week. Witnessing the response from parishioners, neighbors, and strangers alike has been humbling, overwhelming, and heartwarming,” she commented. 

The fire is roughly six miles from Thomas Aquinas College, a Catholic school that has been threatened by wildfire before. The Thomas Fire, named for the school, sparked in early December 2017 less than a mile from campus, and on its first day spread at a rate of one acre per second.

That fire ultimately burned nearly 300,000 acres, including hundreds of residences in the town of Ventura, making it the largest wildfire in state history up to that point. The school later installed a helipad on its campus, with the goal of assisting local firefighters by giving them a spot to refill their helicopters’ water tanks.

Late last week, Thomas Aquinas spokesman Chris Weinkopf told CNA by email: “Mercifully, our California campus has never been in serious danger from the Mountain Fire.”

“We were able to continue with our regular class schedule on Thursday and Friday. We pray, though, for all the firefighters and those who have lost homes and property,” Weinkopf said.