Episcopalians offer help in the face of danger as wildfires rage through Northern California

Huge swaths of Santa Rosa and other Northern California towns have been obliterated by fast-moving wildfires. (Photo: California Highway Patrol Golden Gate Division)

Episcopalians in Northern California continue to monitor the growing wildfires in their neighbourhoods while finding ways to help their communities deal with the ongoing and expanding disaster.

The Revd Jim Richardson, priest-in-charge at Church of the Incarnation in hard-hit Santa Rosa, told Episcopal News Service yesterday (Thursday 12th October) that he knows of parishioners, including those with health care experience, who are volunteering at Red Cross shelters. Other Episcopalians, he said, are donating their services elsewhere and offering material help.

The Revd Daniel Green, rector of St John’s Episcopal Church in Petaluma and dean of the Petaluma deanery, was working a phone bank, Richardson said, set up to connect evacuees with services.

Some evacuees had been sleeping at Incarnation since the fires broke out, but the city issued a voluntary evacuation order on Wednesday night (11th October). Richardson said the fires had gotten “way too close so we got everybody out, made sure they had places to go and left.” [ENS, by Mary Frances Schjonberg]