By: Faye Schuur
Murray County News Staffwriter
One day recently, Faye Schuur received an email about the fiery disasters known as the October Fire Siege in California, the worst fire disaster in California history. “One thing that caught my eye,” she says, “is that during the last 52 days, the Red Cross had sheltered more people than it had during the previous 5 years.”
That was enough to motivate her to head west where the need for relief workers was keen and the threat very real. Since the start of the CAL fire disaster that began on October 8, she says, responders fought 250 new wildfires. At the peak of the wildfires there were 21 major wildfires that in total burned over 245,000 acres, and 11,000 firefighters battled the destructive fires that at one time forced 100,000 to evacuate their homes. “The fires destroyed 8,800 structures and sadly took the lives of 42 people,” Schuur reports.
And so the devastating need drew Schuur to join in the Red Cross relief efforts in any way that was needed. She left for Sacramento on October 11, on a two-week commitment, returning home October 26. After joining three men from the metropolitan and St. Cloud area, the group of 5 became the “Minnesota Team”, and arrived at the Red Cross Chapter in California where they were assigned to a shelter.
“We learned that the shelter they were going to send us to might be closing down due to fires getting too close, and while we were getting processed, our destination changed two more times,” Schuur recalls.
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