WE SERVE -- Volunteers Step-Up to Answer the Call to Service During the Southern California Fires.

Our work to help people recover from the terrible southern California wildfires is well underway and we are seeing the very best in generosity and compassion from thousands of individuals.  The Governor’s CaliforniaVolunteers Office is coordinating many of these efforts and the response from the people of our state has been extraordinary.  More than 4,200 volunteers are on the ground in the affected areas.  And in San Diego County alone 10,000 new volunteers have registered with the local center since the fires began.

Volunteers are helping at shelters, supporting command centers, processing donations and taking care of animals for evacuees.

And the stories of volunteers are truly heartening and I'd like to share a few of them with you today:

“Rob and I grabbed the family photos and left with the clothes on our back.  My husband was with his mother in St. Louis who is dying (97).  I was overwhelmed.  Rob took charge and organized the whole process.  I was so proud of him.  We stayed with school friends in Point Loma (about 30 in one house, dogs, grandparents, etc).  Rob went and volunteered [helping/serving evacuees] at the Rock Church while he too was an evacuee!   Several homes near ours burned down.  Ours is still standing so now we will do what we can to help others.  What a great volunteer spirit San Diego had during this wildfire.  They said more people were evacuated than during the Civil War! 

“Rob always feels he is not doing anything special.  He thinks anything someone does to help another is just something everyone should do. He comforted me with a hug saying, 'Don't worry Mom, if we lose our home, we can start again.  We are safe.'  That is the same skill he learned in the nursing home [where he has volunteered previously].  When the elderly were afraid, he would comfort them and help them feel at peace.  Now he was helping me too as well as the evacuees at the Rock!  Volunteer skills learned can carry over into your day-to-day life!”

Rob is a senior at Santa Fe Christian School, a very self-motivated volunteer and the winner of 2007 Character Matters Essay Contest sponsored by University of San Diego Character Development Center. 

When Debra Boelkes got sworn in as a disaster volunteer Saturday, it never crossed her mind that days later she would be coordinating relief efforts for one of the worst disasters in state history.

But Boelkes didn’t hesitate when the call went out for certified volunteers to assist fire crews holed up at the command post in Irvine Regional Park in Orange, some 17 miles from her home in Newport Beach.

Volunteers from Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Villa Park, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Irvine and other cities have provided food, drinks and services to safety crews at different command posts throughout the county since Sunday.

“I totally expected that whatever I did would be in my neighborhood,” Boelkes said. “I never thought we would be called up two days after our graduation.”

Newport Beach swore in 42 Newport Beach Community Emergency Response Team members Saturday, after more than a month of training in first aid, search-and-rescue tactics, earthquake/tsunami situations and fire suppression.

Boelkes, who also works just blocks away from where the fires hit Monday in Foothill Ranch, took on the role of incident commander for the 12-hour 6 a.m. shift Wednesday. She sent volunteers on a variety of jobs — feeding resting firefighters, relaying messages between different agencies and manning the park’s front gates. The last turned out to be an eventful task.

Throughout the day a number of evacuees — infuriated by the loss of their homes — attempted to push their way in the gates and voice their anger with Orange County Sheriff’s Department deputies.

The Santiago Canyon fire marks the first use of Newport Beach or Costa Mesa response team volunteers for countywide emergency since the program’s beginnings. The Costa Mesa program, run by fire protection Specialist Brenda Emerick, started in 1998. Newport Beach’s program began in 1999 and is coordinated by Community Preparedness Coordinator Matt Brisbois.

The situation has given volunteers a “good experience to see a mutual aid firsthand,” Brisbois said.

Brisbois and Emrick joined forces this week, coordinating for the entire county. Alternating 12-hour shifts, Brisbois on day watch and Emrick at night, the two manage 20 volunteers each shift and said they take pride in how their cities have stepped up.

“I have 10 people coming out tonight,” Emrick said. “I cannot believe the number of volunteers who have said to me, ‘whatever you want me to do.’”

“This is a very historical moment for us as coordinators. There have been a lot of lessons learned.”

Their roles became uncertain after noon Wednesday when the United States Forest Service took over operations as the blaze entered the Cleveland National Forest.

The fires, which stretch from San Diego County to Santa Barbara County, had burned about 430,000 acres and displaced thousands from their homes as of Wednesday. At least one death had been directly attributed to the fires, and at least five others had been linked to them. The Santiago Canyon fire in Orange County had scorched about 18,000 acres.

Training for the emergency response team program is offered through both cities at no cost to residents, local employees or students.

BARRETT JUNCTION, Calif. -- The search team descended into the blackened canyon hoping the flames had spared Juan Carlos Bautista. The last time anyone had heard from the 37-year-old migrant was Oct. 21, the day the Harris fire swept through the rugged backcountry east of San Diego.

Now, more than a week later, the canyon yielded no clues.

Perhaps, the searchers hoped, he was stranded on nearby Tecate Peak.

Rising nearly 4,000 feet, the mountain looms over the U.S.-Mexico border like a giant wall of granite. It would be hard trekking, but the searchers felt a special bond with Bautista. Some of them also had crossed illegally into California years ago.

"We have to help our own people. . . . I know the anxiety he lived, the fear," said Rafael Hernandez, director of Desert Angels, a humanitarian group that spearheaded the search.

Bautista began his trek with six other migrants, crossing into a mountainous area 40 miles east of San Diego that has long been a funnel for illegal immigration. Within hours of crossing, it became a death trap.

The sky rained ash. Flames raced up hillsides. The migrants huddled under blankets. They poured water on each other. Six ran into a canyon skirting California 94. Bautista started climbing Tecate Peak, where he thought he would be able to make a 911 call from his cellular phone.

During the next few hours, the fire would kill a man trying to save his house in nearby Potrero and injure four firefighters. Bautista's companions suffered severe burns but were rescued and transferred to the UC San Diego Regional Burn Unit.

On Oct. 29 -- a week after Bautista disappeared -- his brother, who lives in San Diego County, called a radio station in Tijuana asking for help finding his brother. A native of the Mexican state of Chiapas, he said his brother had lived in the United States and was re-crossing to reunite with family members.

The radio producer contacted Hernandez, a former Mexico City paramedic whose group provides food and aid to migrants. Hernandez said he crossed illegally from Tijuana more than 20 years ago. Though it was much easier then and he is now in the United States legally, he still sympathizes with the migrant experience.

Hernandez's Desert Angels consists primarily of a 1995 Chevrolet pickup truck with cracked emergency lights and a siren he says is just for show. Volunteers include tile floor installers, students and mechanics. The radio producer, Jose Arturo Rodriguez, also participated in the search for Bautista.

Hernandez knew well the rugged area where Bautista vanished. A few days earlier he had watched U.S. Border Patrol agents retrieve the charred bodies of four migrants found dead at the bottom of a canyon.

After their first fruitless search, Hernandez's team went to the burn center to consult with the survivors. The team showed them video of the terrain. The survivors confirmed that Bautista was probably still on Tecate Peak.

Using ropes, rappelling equipment and harnesses, the volunteers on Saturday started climbing the mountain. When they encountered the group's burned backpacks, they knew they were on the right track.

On Sunday, volunteer Guillermo Perez skirted a huge boulder and saw something: A man lying on the ground with his arm resting over his face. "I thought he was sleeping," Perez said.

The man had died just outside a cave where he was apparently trying to seek shelter. His rubber-soled shoes had melted onto his feet. His face and back were burned. Animals had eaten part of his foot.

"It was a very sad death. It doesn't look like he died of burns. He was probably thirsty and hungry," said the weary Hernandez, his body covered with soot from the search.

Night fell without emergency services coming to retrieve the body. The group stayed overnight, hooking themselves with ropes onto the steep walls. They took shifts throwing rocks at coyotes and other creatures trying to eat the remains.

Alberto Lozano, a spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in San Diego, said authorities discovered Bautista's identification on the burned body. The cause of death has yet to be determined, but it is probably fire-related, Lozano said.

The searchers, he said, would be formally honored by the Mexican Consulate for their bravery and commitment, he said. "It's incredible that they found him," Lozano said, "and incredible how long they waited and guarded the body so the animals wouldn't eat it."