A Burning Ring of Fire

October 24, 2007 Posted by Roger Overton

No doubt everyone is aware of the situation here in Southern California. It is almost a ring of fire encircling the Greater Los Angeles through San Diego areas. For the last couple of days there's been no way out that doesn't go through a cloud of smoke, though I think it's lightened up since this afternoon. My favorite local hiking spot is fried. Obviously that's not a big deal
in light of lives and homes destroyed, but I am disappointed that I
slept-in instead of going when I planned to a few weeks ago.

I have a friend who's under mandatory evacuation in San Diego County, though our last update from him this afternoon found him staying to defend his house. Westminster Seminary in Escondido appears to be safe at the moment, but some of the homes of the faculty are in danger. Dr. R. Scott Clark has been posting updates. Apparently the fire is about a mile from the home of Dr. Steven Baugh. Here's a handy map of the affected areas in San Diego County (I haven't been able to find a similar one for the LA area).

I've heard a number of comparisons to Hurricane Katrina on the news. One newscaster (Brian Williams I believe) said there hasn't been this large of a movement of people in America since the Civil War. Most of these comments are overly dramatic. Most of the people being evacuated are only being inconvenienced, most will not lose their homes or suffer any real damage. The number of evacuations is incredibly large, almost a million so far. But there's a huge difference between this and Katrina- According to Wikipedia, there were 1,836 lives lost and 705 people remain missing as a result of Katrina. Regardless of how precise those figures are, there's really no chance these fires will result in the same loss of life. To my knowledge only 5-6 people have died so far. Yes, loss of property and beautiful wilderness is devastating, but it cannot compare to the significance of human death. Frankly, I'm sick of the media painting the story in more dramatic terms than it should be, and I'm sick of a particular local NBC anchor who reads politics into every action or inaction of the government.

I haven't been able to find any organizations requesting support so they can help people affected by the fires. There should be some out there since 1 million evacuees are going to need a lot of help. If you find any, please post them here. Also keep the people here in your prayers, especially the congregation of Malibu Presbyterian Church as their church was one of the first buildings to burn.