Children’s Disaster Services deploys to Lake Isabella, Calif.

By Carolyn Neher and Michael Scalzi, Children’s Disaster Services

On Aug. 9, Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) deployed a team of three volunteers to Lake Isabella, Calif., where they served in a Local Assistance Center (LAC) until Aug. 13. Setting up a disaster care center, the team aided the needs of 20 children.

The volunteers arrived with a calm presence for the children and families affected by the fire. They brought a Kit of Comfort–a suitcase containing toys and activities chosen especially for therapeutic and expressive value. The volunteers played and worked with the children, helping them begin their emotional recovery following such a traumatic event.

This deployment was in response to the Borel fire, which started July 24 after a vehicle went over the edge of Highway 178 in Kern County, Calif., and caught fire.

Borel is the second largest wildfire in California in the 2024 wildfire season, burning over 59,000 acres before 91 percent containment on Aug. 10.

In the last few years, CDS volunteers have responded to the needs of children in several states during wildfires. These have included the 2023 wildfire in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, where 13 CDS volunteers served 457 children during 6 weeks of deployment; the Marshall Fire in Lafayette, Colo., in January 2022, serving 25 children; and in 2021, 3 wildfires in Santa Clara and Oroville, Calif., and one in Boulder, Colo. In 2018, CDS responded with three separate teams to the Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise, Calif.