October 25, 2007
 
SAN DIEGO -- As more than 20 wildfires have burned at least 665 square miles in seven counties and forced nearly 1 million residents to flee their homes, Southern Baptist disaster relief workers are responding quickly by providing thousands of meals for firefighters and evacuees in Southern California.

Two feeding units from the California Southern Baptist Convention are set up at PETCO Park, home of the San Diego Padres. Don Hargis, disaster relief coordinator for California, said they're preparing 20,000 to 40,000 meals a day to be sent out to shelters in 75 Red Cross emergency relief vehicles.

A third kitchen unit is operating at First Baptist Church in Newhall, Calif., which is in northern Los Angeles County, according to Mickey Caison, director of the North American Mission Board's disaster operations center in Alpharetta, Ga. That kitchen is prepared to serve up to 700 meals a day, he said.

The evacuations in Southern California are the largest in the United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and this marks the first time NAMB has fully activated its disaster operations center since that time, Caison said. It is now operating full-time with four NAMB staff members and six volunteers.

California Southern Baptist shower units have been set up at First Baptist in Newhall and at PETCO Park in San Diego. With six private shower stalls, the units can handle about 600 people a day. Another 9,000 evacuees are being housed at Qualcomm Stadium, home of the San Diego Chargers.

A seven-person incident command team has been dispatched to California Baptist University in Riverside, Calif., where a command post will be set up in a university office on the CBU campus.

The university was selected for the incident command center because it is located in the geographic center of the ravaging fires, Hargis said. The fires stretch from Los Angeles to San Diego.

Hargis said more than 100 California disaster relief volunteers have been mobilized for duty, and the Arizona and Nevada Baptist conventions have been asked to provide replacements for feeding units in November. Arizona feeding and shower units are on standby for possible deployment, Caison said.