While the quickly erupted Bridge Fire has displaced Tri-Community residents from their homes since the evacuation order was in effect on Sep. 10, a few evacuees took shelter at a familiar location in the nearby Stater Bros. parking lot on Phelan Rd.
Although not an official evacuation site, the local businesses in the shopping center, along with good samaritans from across the High Desert, lent a helping hand to evacuees who camped out in their trailers, motor homes and cars making it a place of refuge.
T-mobile allowed free phone charging while local hair salon, A Wild Rose offered free hair washing service to those without running water.
Access to free food and drinking water was in abundance with people bringing burritos, home cooked meals, baked goods and even Costco hot dogs, that were delivered still warm, from a concerned citizen in Victorville. Evacuees in the parking lot even woke up to delicious donuts and coffee one morning, provided by the Curbside Church in Adelanto.
What started as small gestures throughout the first few days since the evacuation, has grown to include free catered spaghetti by local businesses like Maria’s Cuisine in Phelan. The renowned non-profit organization World Central Kitchen, which provides food relief during extreme crisis, also set up a food distribution tent during the day. Even On the Go BBQ food truck was seen in the parking lot, occasionally cooking up hot meals.
Access to reliable running water had been a minor issue in the beginning, but when the evacuation order began to stretch on for days, a mobile shower trailer was towed into the parking lot by the Victor Valley Rescue Mission, a non-profit organization that offers mobile showers to the homeless and unhoused in the greater High Desert area.
With the closest evacuation sites being at San Bernardino County Fairgrounds or free open camping and parking at Hesperia Lakes and Mojave Narrows in Victorville, displaced residents instead, feel more inclined to stay closer to the Tri-Community area than travel away from the mountain region.
Unfortunately, the impromptu site at Stater Bros. was growing in size and facing liability issues for the commercial business space which prompted San Bernardino County to plan for a more formal evacuation location.
On Saturday, Sept. 14 the Foursquare Church in Phelan offered their property as a community Red Cross Evacuation Site with food, cots to sleep on, and San Bernardino County Animal Care Unit set up with tents and crates behind the church to house and feed pets. Community members are still rallying to help evacuees at the new location and the church has received gracious donations from the community like coats and sweaters for evacuees, as well as, authentic homemade tortillas made by a local business in Adelanto.
Foursquare Church is located at 10120 Johnson Rd in Phelan where anyone displaced by the fires can go and stay or get disaster relief resources or information during these trying times. Monetary donations for those affected by the recent California Wildfires can be given directly through the Southern Californian American Red Cross website.
