Fire at Westmont

(that's the library at Westmont) So if any of you don't know yet, Westmont campus caught fire earlier today. A wildfire on the hills behind Montecito spread with the huge Santa Ana winds (up to 70mph). The entire Montecito area has been evacuated, and dozens of homes have already been destroyed by the fire.

Westmont students have been evacuated to the gym, but they're safe now. The fire has completely destroyed the math building, physics building, bauder hall (a psychology building), the Quonset huts, and rumors of the prayer chapel as well. There are several fires in Clark, the freshman dorms, that firemen are trying to contain. So far none of the other major buildings have been severely damaged. But we heard there are several spot fires still, that are being blown around by the winds...

This is crazy. We've heard about California fires around the area in years past, but none has ever hit us - it never seem real till now. I can't believe that this is actually happening. I'm praying hard for everyone that they'll be safe and the campus will be ok. The winds have died down a bit, so hopefully not much more damage will be done.

I hope everyone's ok. This is just crazy..

Later:

Fire's out. Official damage report said the prayer chapel is still in tact, but the other buildings did burn down. 15 of the faculty houses burned down, including Mark the RD's house (my freshman RD) and Dr. McMahon's house (my advisor). 67 students (living on & off campus) plus faculty are now without homes, but luckily, no one was hurt in the fire.

It was amazing to see how fast word spread about Westmont and how many people were praying for the college. That's why most of the campus was saved, I'm sure. What is a miracle is that the math & physics buildings and the quonset huts were scheduled for demolition in a couple days and so were cleared out already. So nothing was really lost. The psychology department was the only one to really get hit, with losing offices.

But the main concern right now is finding temporary housing for the students and faculty. Classes aren't starting up again until December 1, so the college has time to fix the damage done on campus and to situate classes again. I wish I was back there, so I could help out.