Chaplains visit Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda after Freeway Complex fire

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times
Chaplain Keith Stiles, right, of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, consoles Vivian Vargas, left, after she lost her home on Aviemore Drive in Yorba Linda in the Freeway Complex fire. Stiles gave them a Bible and prayed with them.

Chaplains visit Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda after Freeway Complex fire
By Duke Helfand
Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:33:32 PM

When they respond to disasters, chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team usually encounter throngs of desperate victims.

So the evangelical Christians were surprised Monday as they searched deserted, mountainous neighborhoods of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda that had been charred by the Freeway Complex fire.


The chaplains were awed by the panoramic views from Orange County's sloping suburbs, but struck by the absence of victims and eager to apply their ministerial hands.

The seven men, led by a retired police chief from North Carolina, had received just 15 requests for help since their arrival last week, their third deployment to Southern California since 2003 in response to wildfires.

A much larger contingent of chaplains received several hundred requests for help during last year's Witch fire in northern San Diego County.
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