Ramona Fire Recovery Center is Open

Ramona Fire Recovery Center - Opened Feb. 25 2008

1710 Montecito Road ( the old school)

Hours: Walk-ins are welcome or call (760) 788-1013 for an appointment.

9-6 p.m. Mon-Thur
9-5 p.m. Friday
10-3 p.m. Sat.

Funded by a one-year grant of nearly $190,000 from the nonprofit San Diego Foundation. Bonnie Frede, center director.

It’s a one-stop shop where fire victims can get help with everything from permanent housing to clothing and counseling. “Recovery is a very long process and people have a lot of unmet needs.”

“That’s the beauty of a center like this,” said Frede, who has set up nearly 50 appointments since Monday’s opening. “When we find out what people need, we can try and find local connections to help us.”

With 460 homes destroyed and more than 300 other structures razed in Ramona, , “We lost more than Poway and Rancho Bernardo combined,” Frede said.

Around lunchtime Thursday, Frede was scheduling appointments from a makeshift office in a modular building that served formerly as a classroom at Ramona Community School before the school closed.

While Frede answered phone calls and passed out information to walk-ins, a team of three volunteers with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee talked to fire victims to find out what they need.

Clothes and housing are the most common needs, but sometimes people forget that children need school supplies and families need a place to store new belongings they’re acquiring until they can build, buy or rent a new home, Faber said.

Frede said sometimes the best help is being a good listener. “Talk to them,” she said. “Listen to them. Reliving the trauma is hard but, little by little, talking can help.”

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