An Email from Fr. Damascene:
Your Grace, Bless, Master!
The back burn was successful, so now we have a larger fire break on the ridge above our monastery. However, last night, due to strong winds the fire spread rapidly, towards the west and south. The fire jumped Hiway 36. The entire town of Platina has being forced to evacuate. We just heard that the western end of the fire is now moving north, which could endanger the town of Platina and the monastery from the other side. More winds are expected over the next few days. We still really need prayers. Today, I spoke with Abbot Gerasim in Ecuador. Most of us will be going to stay at Dmitar Karr’s place in Shingletown today, and will probably be there until, God willing, we are allowed to go back to the monastery. At this point, it looks like we will be evacuated at least for several more days. Asking Your Archpastoral blessings and prayers,
In Christ, Fr. Damascene
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 4:58 p.m.
An Email from Fr. Damascene to
His Grace Bishop Maxim
Your Grace, Bless, Master!
I’m writing this from our office in Platina, and will return soon to Redding with Monk Paisius. We just went up to the monastery briefly. At 3 pm, Monk Paisius talked to the district supervisor of the fire crew at the top of the ridge on which our monastery in located. The monastery is not yet out of danger. The fire has slightly broken over a ridge which is two ridges away from our monastery, and it also gone down into the gorge, where it is moving closer to the area directly below our monastery. The fire crew, however, is very pleased with the fire’s behavior. It has given them time to make a 20-foot-wide fire break along the top of our ridge, and to prepare more fully for a back burn, which is a controlled burn to clear away shrubs and trees along the edge of the fire break. The fire break, together with the back-burn, will make it so that the fire will have no “fuel” if it reaches the top of our ridge. The fire crew are planning to do the back burn today, and are just waiting for a little more favorable conditions. The back burn itself is somewhat dangerous, since if the wind changes the controlled fire could become uncontrolled. So, the situation is better today than it looked yesterday, thanks be to God. However, things could change for the worse, depending on the weather. We are extremely grateful for all the prayers that have been offered on our behalf, and we ask everyone to keep praying. The fire crew wants us to remain evacuated from the monastery, so we are spending the night in Redding. Asking Your Archpastoral blessings and prayers,
In Christ, hieromonk Damascene
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