Quincy Church Ministers Through the Smoke and Ash PHOTO: RICH DUBOSE
“
ABOVE: Sad remains of the town of Greenville, Calif., after the Dixie Fire. BELOW: Team of ACS disaster relief volunteers: from left, Joan Gately, Nina Harris, Dale Harris, Dale Evans, Dorrie Philbeck, and Vicki Chestnut. INSET: Flyers advertising the Dixie Fire distribution center were widely distributed.
34 Pacific Union Recorder
Y
ou are in imminent danger and you MUST leave now.” This urgent warning came from the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office on August 4, 2021. That evening, the Dixie Fire destroyed most of the Gold Rush town of Greenville, California, displacing around 1,000 people overnight. The residents of Greenville fled for their lives, some with only what they had on their back. Nine of the residents found themselves in the parking lot of the Adventist church in the neighboring town of Quincy, about 30 minutes away. The Quincy church was blessed to host these fire evacuees in their parking lot and church for several weeks. Many people lived in tents for weeks and were happy to have a safe space to call home for the time being. Some were anxious about whether or not their homes in Greenville were still standing. To give them something to do, the church provided them with yard tools and let them help maintain the church grounds. The evacuees were happy to have something productive to do. They manicured the church yard, raked, and trimmed shrubs. One of the evacuees, Dale Evans, stayed in the church parking lot with his RV for three months; he became a vital volunteer at the Adventist Community Services (ACS) Dixie Fire Aid Center. The Dixie Fire started on July 13, 2021, near the Cresta Dam in the Feather River Canyon. It destroyed over 1,300 structures. The fire burned in the Plumas and Lassen National Forests, Lassen Volcanic National Park, and across the five counties of Butte, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta, and Tehama. It burned nearly 1 million acres, becoming the second largest wildfire in the history of California. On August 5, while on top of a mountain near Quincy, watching the voluminous cloud of smoke and fire devouring Greenville in the distance, Quincy church member Nina Harris received a call from NUC President Leon Brown informing her that the conference was releasing to the Quincy church and Plumas County the services of Delberth Castillo, NUC Adventist Community Services director, for as long as they would need him. Soon, a call came from
Nevada-Utah Conference
