Steve and Janet Smith live in a home in the heart of Altadena, California, the same one they’ve resided in for 39 years, on a beautiful street with attractive houses, most of them with majestic trees and groomed yards. A good thing on that last count since Steve is a retired landscape architect who is fastidious about his own lawn, flower beds and gardens.
The Smiths love it there. Loved it.
But … as Steve says it now, their neighborhood has been transformed into what looks like some sort of hellscape, like a nuclear wasteland, almost all of it burned out from the wildfires that have consumed large sections of the Los Angeles area. Their house was mostly spared by the blaze, only a portion of it damaged, while their neighbors were not so fortunate.
“It’s been devastating,” Janet says. “And I don’t think we’ll be getting back in anytime soon. They’re still putting out fires, and checking for toxic remains. And they’re meticulously searching for bodies, too. It’s heartbreaking.”
A bit of positivity for them has been the reaction to so much destruction by the community in general, and their church congregation specifically. The Smiths are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and if service really is at the center of any religion worthy of its existence, then worthy the faith is. Service to those in need is something their faith does exceptionally well, as it should.
Living water
It’s what it is doing now, in places like Altadena, Pasadena, Pacific Palisades and other parts of the L.A. area, urban sections that have burned to the ground. An update issued Friday informed that the church is “mobilizing its resources to assist” residents who have been harmed, shocked and shattered by the flames.
The church’s emergency supplies held in bishops’ storehouses in the region and the Bishops’ Central Storehouse in Salt Lake City are being dispatched to people in the regions affected. For example, the news release said, 1,500 cases of bottled water have been distributed. Those bottles are important since many people have been forbidden to drink and use whatever water is left in their communities.
The update mentioned that so far some 1,000 Latter-day Saints have been displaced from their homes, relocating to homes of relatives, friends and fellow church members. Some have found lodging of other kinds. “More than 30 Latter-day Saints’ homes have been destroyed,” the release said, and “church buildings have been made available for community staging and shelter.”
Like caring residents in and around the burned-out neighborhoods and worshippers of other denominations, “many” Latter-day Saints are volunteering to help any which way they can, and the Utah-based faith is encouraging those who wish to participate to donate to the church’s humanitarian efforts or to offer “volunteer support through local organizations.”
Steve Smith says he received a questionnaire from his bishop, inquiring whether he and Janet had what they needed, items such as water, food, clothing, shelter and, if they didn’t, the congregation was there to help anyway it could. “The ward and [regional] stake want to make sure help of every kind is given. They’re doing a good job. On Sunday, I’m going to church for about a half-hour for a shortened meeting in my jeans.”
Nine families in their particular ward, or congregation, have lost their houses.
At a Pasadena stake center, church volunteers unloaded goods out of a semitruck in the parking lot, aiming to distribute those supplies to residents.
‘It’s overwhelming’
The Smiths are hurting for themselves, and especially for their neighbors, but they also are grateful. They’re currently staying at a daughter’s home in Glendora, 20 miles away from their home.
They were able to return to their house for a few hours Wednesday after slamming a few belongings into their car and bolting from the howling flames at 3 a.m. After that single visit, they, along with many other residents, were blocked from returning because of the danger presented by the leftover noxious debris, the ongoing searches, and, pathetically, reported that some looting had occurred.
“There are police and members of the National Guard on many of the streets leading into and out of the area,” Janet says. “We can’t get in there now, and I don’t know when we’ll be allowed in. There’s no power, no heat, no services, no water.”
Describing the devastation doesn’t quite illustrate the enormity of it all, she says. “It’s overwhelming. Hard to comprehend. Surreal.”
An example: One of the Smiths’ neighbors, an elderly man whose wife died three weeks ago, had her ashes in an urn at his house. Those ashes, along with pretty much everything else important to him, were devoured in the fire.
“Stores, restaurants, cleaners, churches, schools, homes — they’re all gone,” Steve says.
The aid given by the church, by friends and fellow Latter-day Saints won’t bring back what has been lost, Janet says. “But it’s nice to know the support is there.”
A fellow ward member offered up these famous words of comfort from Fred Rogers, the beloved host of a long-running children’s television show: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
Those sentences might not mean much to some people, but for folks who have watched their whole communities wiped out by 30-foot flames fueled by 90 mph winds, they are held close to the heart.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tribune columnist Gordon Monson.
