As fire continues to scorch more than 60 square miles of the Los Angeles area, volunteers from San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties are rearing to help provide relief for those affected.
According to county and fire department reports, the LA fires have killed 25 people and destroyed more than 6,800 structures since Jan. 7.
Morro Bay Fire Department Division Chief Matthew Vierra told New Times the county has sent out 21 local responders to the scene with a strike team that responds to other agencies and jurisdictions in need of help. According to Vierra, the current team on call consists of firefighters from Morro Bay, Atascadero, San Luis Obispo, and Cal Fire, along with five fire engines.
For a week now, the strike team has been fighting the LA fires, and responders won’t be released until after red flag Santa Ana winds pass and the fire is more contained, Vierra said on Jan. 14.
“So, I think everybody’s maybe kind of holding their breath a little bit and see what happens,” Vierra said. “They don’t want to have a bunch of spot fires breaking out, right?”
Local moving company Meathead Movers is collecting donations for various supplies until Friday, Jan. 17, in partnership with Operation USA, an LA-based international disaster relief agency.
Marketing Manager Collette Vangerwen said Meathead Movers is currently accepting donations of unopened toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, body wash, bars of soap, hand towels, and diapers, among other sanitary products at all their locations along the Central and South Coast.
“Tuesday last week we saw the disaster starting to unfold, and we knew what we had to do,” Vangerwen said.
Meathead Movers also partnered with Herman Story Wines in Paso Robles as a drop-off site and Associated Students Inc. at Cal Poly. Donations can be dropped off on campus at a Meathead Movers truck parked at the roundabout behind the multipurpose activity center.
They’ve filled up four trucks between all the donation sites, she said.
“Community support is just the reason why Meathead Movers is here,” she said. “Filling those trucks is just something we’ve been doing. We’ve done this over a dozen times for natural disasters and humanitarian crises, and we just get to come together with the community to make a difference.”
Santa Barbara Humane and Woods Humane Society are currently working to transport adoptable animals from Pasadena Humane so displaced pets can be better accommodated and be returned to their family.
So far, Santa Barbara Humane has taken in 13 dogs and nearly 30 cats that are all up for adoption, CEO Kerri Burns said.
“I think what a lot of people forget is, you know, with all of these animals that are coming in that are affected by the fire, or the families that have the animals that are affected by the fire, those animals need a place to go,” she said, “and what [transporting] does is it frees up space for all the evacuated animals to come in and have a safe place to stay until they can go back with their family.”
Burns also said that they’ve also sent a veterinary team to Pasadena to help relieve exhausted staff who are also dealing with their own evacuations.
“Some of the animal care workers and veterinary staff at these different facilities probably had to evacuate their homes. They probably had to get their dogs out, and they’re also emotionally reeling from what’s going on,” she said. “We’ll continue to send teams down where they need it.”
Burns said locals can help most by making a donation or adopting animals at the Santa Barbara and Woods Humane Societies.
“That way we can go down and bring in more animals back that are affected,” she said. Δ
This article appears in Jan 16-26, 2025.
