It was wonderful to be at Mass on Saturday evening to watch the vigil light be re-lit at the first Mass held at a parish previously evacuated for the Witch Creek Fire. Following tradition, the blessed host had been taken from the sanctuary at the time of the evacuation and moved to another parish. Thus, when we entered the church for Saturday's Mass, the light was out and the sanctuary was open and empty.
I do not yet know the extent of any losses of people I may know personally. So far, all I have heard from were either evacuated and have returned home to find things normal, or else were not evacuated at all. Some other parishioners who live further east almost surely lost their homes, and some had property stolen during the evacuation.
We must all be surely grateful that the losses were much lower than those in 2003 although the fire conditions were far worse than before. The Union-Tribune's Fire Blog today posted the latest figures showing 1588 homes burned, 320 damaged, 7 civilian fatalities and 23 civilians injured. Another post shows that there are no fire-related missing people in San Diego County.
That is far lighter damage than the 2003 fires although the 2003 fires burned a much smaller geographic area. That is partly because this year's fires arose during the day while the 2003 fires began during the night. However, the organization of the evacuation and firefighting effort this year was remarkable and impressively executed, and that organization and communication surely deserves much of the credit.
The latest figures, linked above, also show that 93 firefighters were injured in these San Diego County fires. They surely deserve our gratitude, as do all of the other people who worked tirelessly to protect people, animals and property during these fires.
Thanks, too, to all who have prayed and who continue their efforts to help those who have had losses of varying degrees as a result of the fires.
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