Callum Hanlon – son of Moorestown residents Allan and Janet – and his family lost their home in the fire that devastated the community of Altadena in California earlier this year.
First Methodist Church of Moorestown will hold a benefit concert to support the victims of the California wildfires at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 5.
Admission is free, but donations are welcome. The event will feature the Collins Flynn Band and refreshments will be available.
Moorestown resident Allan Hanlon has been a member of the church’s Friday morning men’s group for more than 20 years. Members gather weekly in the church parlor from September to June and typically read books by Christian authors, discussing them when they meet.
But in another way, it’s more than that.
“ … It’s a men’s Christian group,” Hanlon clarified, “but sometimes it turns into a support group, because whatever we’re reading is not as important if someone has an issue. We put that aside and we’re there for whoever.”
After the group learned that Hanlon’s son Callum and his family had lost their home in the fire that devastated the community of Altadena in California, they were spurred to action and came up with the idea for the fundraiser.
“My wife (Janet) and I are very touched,” Hanlon said. “ … It’s been a bit of a ride.”
As of Feb. 20, there have been 398 wildfires in California that burned 57,665 acres, according to the Center For Disaster Philanthropy. The Eaton and the Palisades fires were two of the top three most destructive in California’s history. The cost of the destruction is estimated to be between $250 and $275 billion.
The Palisades Fire erupted as a brush fire on the morning of Jan. 7 in Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood east of Malibu, and quickly grew in Southern California’s dry weather conditions, according to NBC News. That blaze covered 23,448 acres, destroyed 6,837 structures and damaged an additional 1,017.
The Eaton Fire broke out the same evening in Los Angeles County, in the foot hills of Angeles National Forest. That blaze feasted on seven months of rain-free brush as hurricane-force winds spread it into the neighborhoods of Altadena. It destroyed 9,418 structures and damaged 1,073, many of them century-old homes.
At least 29 people were killed in the two fires – 17 in Eaton and 12 in Palisades. Roughly one of every seven homes within the perimeters of the Palisades and Eaton fires have been destroyed or damaged. That’s a total of 6,354 homes, according to a January analysis from Redfin, a real estate brokerage. Of those, 5,449 were destroyed and 905 were damaged.
Both fires are now 100% contained, which means that while flames are still smoldering, firefighters have surrounded the entire footprint of the wildfire with fire breaks that should prevent any further spread.
