Volunteers continue after-fire cleanup

FALLBROOK — On Saturday, March 22, at 8:30 a.m. a group of about 75 volunteers met at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fallbrook. The group was comprised of about 21 members and 24 missionaries, including some from San Clemente, Vista and Escondido stakes.

In total they put in about 315 hours of labor. They are still working on the volunteer projects that they agreed to complete in the days following the Rice Canyon Fire last October.

The latest project to be worked on was for the Beckman family, who live in Stewart Canyon. The volunteers stumped about 75 mature trees from a 300-tree avocado grove that had been damaged. They then cut the wood into firewood, cleared the debris and stacked the wood.

It was on a very steep hill and was extremely dangerous. The Beckmans could not find anyone who would come in and remove the trees at a reasonable rate for them, so the group of volunteers took in eight chainsaws and equipment provided by church headquarters in Salt Lake City for the job. They ate lunch together on the hillside.

The volunteers will be going back to complete the job on April 19. There are approximately 200 mature avocado trees left to stump.

Since the Rice Canyon Fire, the church has utilized approximately 1,500 volunteers in the Fallbrook/Rainbow community. They could be seen wearing the yellow t-shirts throughout the area. The supplies in addition to the chainsaws were the cleanup buckets, hard hats, gloves and goggles.

This will complete the volunteer work that the LDS Church has agreed to complete since the fire.