Prayers of Thanks Mark Westmont’s Tea Fire Commemoration

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/111309_westmont_tea_fire/

By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer

Despite devastation, campus community counts blessings on one-year anniversary

Westmont College faculty, staff, students and community members gathered on the lawn of the school’s prayer chapel Friday in remembrance of the wildfire that swept through the campus just one year ago.

Led by the Westmont College Student Association, those in attendance sang worship songs on the lawn, and prayers of gratitude were offered up by several of the students. God was thanked for sparing most of the campus and for sparing lives.

Inside the school’s chapel, a slideshow called “Ashes to Beauty” played through with images of the Tea Fire that ripped through the Montecito community and into Santa Barbara on Nov. 13, 2008.

Images of the hellish blaze that destroyed eight buildings and 14 faculty homes rotated with the aftermath pictures, displaying the charred buildings and a landscape of debris.

“We’re just so thankful that God protected the campus,” said Sara Stromer, WCSA junior president, who was at the commemoration. She said all of the campus buildings that were destroyed were slated for demolition anyway as part of the school’s master plan renovations.

The fact that the fire claimed no injuries among the 1,100-member student body was also a praise, she said.

As the fire swept down on the campus from the Tea Garden above Mountain Drive, students were herded into Murchison Gym, where they waited out the worst of the blaze. In all, the fire destroyed 230 homes as it scorched nearly 2,000 acres in the Montecito and Santa Barbara foothills.

Today, the 14 faculty homes that were destroyed have been rebuilt and families moved back in Nov. 1. Much of the campus is undergoing construction as well, and a large amount of rebuilding is in progress.

Stromer said the student group had been busy making and delivering cookies to 13 fire stations from Montecito to Goleta to express their thanks.

“We’re all just feeling really blessed,” she said.

— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/111309_westmont_tea_fire/