Sunday morning, one week after the late October fires started in Southern California, George King and Arnold Trujillo, community services directors for the Southeastern California and Pacific Union conferences, along with San Diego lay leaders, Mabel and LeRoy Camp, met at Escondido Academy with Escondido Spanish church pastor Manuel Garcia and about a dozen Adventist families whose homes had burned in the area.
While Adventists lost homes throughout Southern California, the only concentration of Seventh-day Adventist fire victims in one place was on the campus of what was once San Pasqual Academy, about 20 miles north of San Diego. (The property is still home to a school called San Pasqual Academy, but it is a high school for foster children, operated by San Diego County.)
"In 1997, after the Adventist school was closed, but before the property was sold to San Diego County, we moved into a faculty house," said Ben Tupper, retired German professor from UC-Riverside. "Because my wife, Joan, worked at the book bindery, the conference let us rent the home once occupied by school faculty." The Tupper's home was completely destroyed, along with their furniture, a grand piano, an organ, a professional photo lab, and three vehicles.
"Insurance will pay for most of the items that are replaceable," said Ben, who currently does contract design engineering. "What we feel worst about losing is our family history. We lost family photos going back to the 1880s and old Swedish embroidery that has been in the family at least that long, plus a large collection of old, long-playing records."
Just to the west of the old academy dairy was a row of five mobile homes, occupied until the fire mostly by members of the Escondido Spanish Adventist church. Like the Tuppers, those families also rented from San Diego County. All the mobile homes were destroyed, and none of the families had insurance.
"It was a nice home," said Obed Escalante. "But the Lord had other plans, and we trust Him." Later that week, Escalante, with his wife Jovita and their three children, were planning to move in with Louis Garcia, a retired Navy chaplain and member of their church. "The Lord has given me a large home," said Garcia. "I am just glad I can help them out until they find permanent housing."
Louis Garcia did not meet Sunday with those who had lost their homes because he was busy transporting donated food, clothing and beds from Adventists in Garden Grove.
No one had an explanation for what burned and what was spared. "The fire burned right up to my fence on three sides of my house," said Mario Gomez, looking at the ashes of his neighbors' homes at San Pasqual. "It was a miracle. Everything inside the wire fence was green, everything outside was burned."
But a few miles north of Escondido, on the outskirts of Fallbrook, Gene and Margot Meese were not so fortunate. "Escrow closed on our house two weeks ago," said Gene. "We moved all our belongings into the house on Sunday, and it all burned the next day." The good news, of course, was that the fire insurance was up to date. The Meeces planned to spend a few days or weeks with their children in Fallbrook, then begin rebuilding as soon as the money became available from the insurance company. "It is only stuff," said Gene. "The mansion we are planning is in heaven, not here." Inez Torres, Margot's mothers, who lived in Pauma Valley, about 20 miles east of Fallbrook, also lost her mobile home to the fire.
For several years the conferences in the Pacific Union have contributed money to a union-wide disaster fund, in addition to smaller funds in the individual conferences. Trujillo says these funds, together with funds from ADRA and individual donors, should go a long way toward helping people like the residents of San Pasqual get back on their feet.
At the meeting in Escondido, and again amid the ashes, Trujillo and King assured the fire victims, "We are here to help, and we will help. If there is anything at all that you need, give us a call."
