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November 19, 2008, 10:45 AM ET
Recovering From Fire, Westmont Orders Temporary Housing and Sets Reopening
Westmont College, which lost a number of buildings Thursday evening when 70-mile-an-hour winds blew a wildfire across its campus, will remain closed until December 1. Crews are working to clean up the campus, and college officials are helping both faculty members who lost their on-campus homes and 67 students whose dormitories and off-campus residences were destroyed or damaged.
The college is having temporary housing for students delivered to the campus this week and next, as well as temporary classrooms. Meanwhile, faculty members are rethinking their syllabi to make sure students are ready for final exams, which are still scheduled to begin December 15.
The college’s 111-acre campus, which incorporates parts of several former estates, is in a residential area east of Santa Barbara, Calif., near where the so-called Tea Fire began. The college posted photographs of the destruction on its Web site, along with a recording of an informational phone call that the college’s president, Gayle D. Beebe, conducted for parents. A student, Joel Phillips, posted other photographs on a Facebook page set up to offer support for the college and its students.
The college has planned a December 1 “service of hope and renewal” and has invited alumni as well as local firefighters who helped battle the fire.
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