As most of you have heard a Wildfire has swept through the small community in Montecito. We received a phone call from our son very shortly after the blaze started, as it was not far from one of the dorms on Westmont’s campus and all students were evacuated to the gym. About 800 students along with faculty rode out the firestorm in the gym which is a concrete, fire-safe building. We were able to speak to both Caleb and Levi and knew they were safe.
The college has sustained many structural loses, including over a dozen faculty homes. Caleb’s dorm building burned. We don’t know if any of his stuff survived. I’m sure he’s hoping at least his amp and guitar made it, but from the pictures it doesn’t look good.
You can see pictures of Westmont during the fire last night at http://www.independent.com.
We are grateful that noone in Montecito has been seriously hurt and pray that the fire continues to remain contained…last night it was moving into a heavily populated area. The boys are still contained in the gym, but I assume we will hear more soon when they are allowed to walk around the campus. To complicate things it was College Preview Days and there were High School students visiting the campus.
We are giving thanks that God has protected all the people in the area and pray for those who have lost so much.
These photos were posted by Joel Phillips on facebook to let students know what was going on.
