Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/2866
Southern California fires claim members’ homes region’s public schools for several days and quickly prompted CTA chapters and members to pro- vide emergency help to educa- tors and others burned out of their homes. Several educators and educa- T tion support professionals lost their h ouses a s hig h w inds fanned flames in the counties of Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Or- ange. While there were no re- ports of school-related injuries or deaths, the fires closed 59 schools for a short time, affecting nearly 48,000 students and more than 2,400 staff members, according to estimates by the California Department of Education. In Orange County, teacher Sue Davidson a nd h er h usband watched the flames in the dis- tance that Saturday, Nov. 15. They were about to leave for a vacation to Las Vegas, but ended up can- celing their trip as the fire closed in on their neighborhood. In just he devastating Southern California wildfires in mid- November disrupted the seven minutes, the fire was on Davidson’s block in Yorba Linda. “The flames were in the back- yard now,” Davidson said. “It was like I was looking at an ocean of fire.” The couple ran and rounded up a few belongings, along with their three cats and three dogs, and fled in their cars as “the or- ange flames were shooting over the top of my car.” Their daugh- ter, 19, a nd son, 23, w ere not home and were unharmed. Davidson, a s econd-grade teacher at Tynes Elementary in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, took four days off from work and then was back teaching again. She was touched later when she discovered col- leagues had collected $1,000 in gift cards for her family. Her school district and her CTA chapter, the Association of Placentia-Linda E ducators (APLE), along with the California School Employees Association, have set up a relief fund for fire victims that is still accepting dona- tions. In the APLE chapter alone, four educators lost their homes, and three more suffered damage. (For ways to help, visit www.cta. org/Ways+to+Help.htm.) Teacher Heather McBurnie lost nearly everything in the Santa Bar- bara County “Tea Fire” — her house, her belongings — but not her love for teaching and her students. After taking a week off to cope with the tragedy, she returned to Washington Elementary School in Santa Barbara. Her second- graders had been keeping jour- nals, and one parent said a stu- dent had written: “The best day of second grade was when Mrs. McBurnie came back!” It was a close call. McBurnie had picked up her son Tajo, 11, from his drum lesson class and the two of them were driving up the steep canyon to their home. It was about 5:45 p.m. Nov. 14 when she spotted the fires mov- ing swiftly toward her house. “It was so windy,” she recalled. “We had s o li ttle t ime. We j ust Santa Barbara teacher Heather McBurnie’s leveled house after the “Tea Fire” blaze. grabbed a couple of things and left. The house was gone in a few minutes.” A single mother, she had just bought the two-bedroom, one- bathroom home in O ctober 2007. She escaped with her son, her dog, a laptop computer, a change of clothes and some cher- ished photo albums. Her son’s beloved cat was found alive a few days later, singed and hiding in a storm drain. She is grateful to the Santa Bar- bara Teachers Association for helping to get her back on her feet. SBTA President Layne Wheeler said t he c hapter i ssued $500 checks to six m embers whose homes were destroyed in the Tea Fire, and provided information on low-cost loans from CTA. “The union gave me a check for $500,” said McBurnie. “I was really excited about that because I had nothing.” Parents a nd h er s chool pitched in to help as well. McBurnie plans to rebuild on Above: Orange County teacher Sue Davidson walks through the wreckage of what was once her house. Right: Davidson (middle) and her daughter Ally and son Mark. what is now scorched earth. “It’s really hard to imagine unless you actually see it and go through Continued on page 34 december 2008 • january 2009 | www.cta.org 25 Photos by Laura Rhodes Photo by Heather McBurnie