With over 100,000 church members residing in the areas threatened by two weeks of wildfires, Seventh-day Adventists in Southern California reached out to neighbors in need during the recent conflagrations.

Loma Linda University's vice president for public affairs, W. Augustus Cheatham, says the school provided 24-hour, free medical services for the more than 1,000 people encamped at San Bernardino International Airport. Volunteer personnel included physicians, psychiatrists, counselors, nurses and pharmacists.

"Our main tasks there are medical screenings, administering treatments for breathing difficulties, and helping people replace medications they left behind during hasty evacuations," says Cheatham. "We have even set up an on-site pharmacy. Besides medicines, the university is supplying toothbrushes, toothpaste, personal hygiene items, sheets, towels, washcloths and other things the people need to survive as comfortably as possible," he adds.

Among those forced from their homes by the fire were members of the LLU family, including three students, 30 faculty and staff from the university, and 261 employees of the hospital. Dick Weismeyer, director of university relations said the LLU Health Sciences Center established telephone hotlines for displaced employees, staff and students. So far, the university has assisted 42 of those families with housing, food, clothing, personal items and limited amounts of emergency cash.

KSGN, once the La Sierra University FM radio station, and still operated by Adventist church members, said its transmitter had been totally destroyed by fire on Oct. 25. Two days later, it was back on the air at reduced power. "Repair of the building and replacing the equipment (allowing for a full-power signal) is expected to take several weeks," according to a statement from the radio station.

No confirmed reports of deaths among church members have yet been received. Although some members lost homes in the fires, the flames spared church-related properties including the Adventist Media Center in Simi Valley, La Sierra University in Riverside as well as Loma Linda University and Medical Center, one of the most widely known Adventist health facilities in North America. With the fires raging in Simi Valley, there was a temporary breakdown in satellite television programming of Adventist News Network which uplinks its programs from the Adventist Media Productions facility. [Editor: Gerry Chudleigh for ANN/APD]