GARBERVILLE, Calif.—Credit union offices across California appear to be safe from the wildfires raging across the state, but the same can’t be said for the homes owned by some members and CU staff.
Meanwhile, some credit unions are also helping the volunteer firefighters among their members with aid packages.
Shon Wellborn, CEO of Community CU of Southern Humboldt here, described the blazes in her area as “far worse than the Canoe Fires in 2003. And I didn’t think anything could be worse than that. All from dry lightning compounded by four years of drought. We are expecting more dry lightning this weekend. My local area is fine—except for the smoke—but our forest, ranch lands and homes are burning.”
Firefighters Converging
Firefighters from all over California are converging on the communities served by Community CU of Southern Humboldt.
“Several of my staff have been called to defend family ranches. When our members reach out we help each other in any way necessary,” Wellborn said. “We thank our firefighters every time we see them. We gather food, water, and helpful supplies and drive them to the area as our men and women take only bare minimum time to sleep and no time to stop for food.”
Despite the nearly two-dozen wildfires torching more than 134,000 acres in California, CU offices remain untouched, according to report from CUs and the California and Nevada CU Leagues.
In Ukiah, the safety of the office of Mendo Lake CU was a concern late last week. The CU was forced to close its Clearlake, Calif., location Friday afternoon over concerns from the fire blazing in the mountains here. But all four of the CU’s branches are open this week.
However, the credit union is using its website to alert members that if they are having any difficulty making it to a branch that they should use its remote delivery services.
Business Areas Safe
Tina Ramos-Ingold, media relations specialist at the California and Nevada CU Leagues, told CUToday.info that most of the blazes are not close to business areas.
Dean Hart, VP of marketing and communications at Coast Central CU in Eureka, reported that there are no member service branches at risk, but smoke has been an issue across the entire area throughout the past week.
“Some of our staff are volunteer firefighters, and have been activated to fight the fires,” he said, adding that the CU is helping to subsidize aid packages to fire victims.