Reader comments
Hit and miss fire: Some LDS suffer loss while others spared

Those poor people.

I am sorry to hear about all the loss of homes and property in Southern Cal.. The fires have been devastating..
But for many years the Environmentalists tree huggers have sued and refused to let home owners clean up dead trees and brush around their homes.. Little animals and owls need natural dead dried fire starting brush to live in.. So they say!
Well, this latest fire destruction has killed more owls and little animals than could have ever died naturally..
But the Environmentalists don't care, and they continue to issue laws to create fire trapped homes..

We are thinking and praying for those in California.

And unfortunately, neither is fire. It is times like this that I find it highly irrelevant and irreverent to draw the distinction between LDS and non-LDS. Hundreds, if not thousands of people have lost their homes and we have the opportunity to give and serve, regardless of their religious affiliation. The LDS church has the organization and experience to care for their own, no need for a newspaper hundreds of miles away to try and exclude a certain percentage.

Please eliminate the �support on the way� part of your title. I was interested in reading about how and where the support was coming from, unfortunately, like so many Deseret News articles, there was hardly any reference that justifies the title. Please let�s have some good editors to check these deviations and improprieties in proper journalism.

Somehow, giving the tragedy a "Mormons Affected Too" spin makes it even more devasating, doesn't it? Seriously, is it someone's job at this paper to call Mormons in affected areas just to give their tragedies a parochial, "If one Mormon is affected, they're all affected." twist? One's religion doesn't make anything any more or less poignant; these fires affect Mormons, Jews, Catholics, Agnostics, et. al. in the same way, and a niche story like this only serves as a disservice to all who are affected. It says Mormons only care about other Mormons, when nothing could be further from the truth. Keep this kind of headline confined to Saturday's "Church News".

To "Environmentalists": You don't know what you're talking about. People here are REQUIRED to reduce fuels around their properties. But with 70-100 mph wind and exploding eucalyptus trees throwing burning oils hundreds of feet, it is going to burn no matter what. I know. I lived through the last disaster four years ago. It's just what happens. When a fire jumps a 10 lane freeway like it was a little footpath, you can't make a firebreak big enough to stop it.

I served as a missionary in Poway and other parts of San Diego about 18 years ago. There are many truly good Latter-day Saints and non-LDS down there. My heart goes out to them for the challenges they face in the months ahead, but I've never met a more strong optimistic people than those in the San Diego area. God bless my brothers and sisters--you are in our thoughts and prayers!

Amen.

If environmentalists had the power to "issue laws" then they probably would have done the right thing and "issued laws" that prohibited home building in such disaster prone areas.

I am from Poway, but have since moved to Utah. I was there visiting 4 years ago during the Cedar Fire. And now to see this destruction on such a large scale. I feel very grateful that my friend in Rancho Bernardo did not lose her home, and my brother's home in Poway is safe.

I feel grateful that they are safe, but so sad for the thousands that have lost their homes. This destruction is beyond anything I have seen before in a place I have lived.

Being a member of the LDS Faith in Poway, does make this story very relevant to me. You have to realize how many of us have transplanted, and I feel grateful that the news paper gave us updates so we could know more about our home stake. I hurt for everyone who has lost, but needless to say, I am still concerned about members of the church as well, and I appreciate updates such as this article.

God is not a respecter of persons, but brush fires usually target the wealthier in CA. Who else can afford a cabin house in the mountains or the ability to cut their own piece of land in the middle of the wilderness? There might be a few poor people, but the majority of those suffering with burnt down houses have money.

I agree that the religious affiliations of the victims of the fire is irrelevant. It appears to be an indictment on DMN subscribers apathy, or inability to step out of their comfort zones, and take notice what is happening outside their stakes if they don't play the religion card.

I am always interested in what is happening to members of the Church throughout the world. Even though we are a worldwide Church, we are still a close-knit 'community' and just like family we want to know how our 'brothers and sisters' are doing - whether it is good or bad.

After making sure our ward members in our "districts" were okay, there were many, many people going to help everyone in the community. I can not tell you how many horse trailers and RV's, etc. were driven out of town for people who simply could not do it all. And the men kept going back in to help. I am sure they spent hundreds of dollars in their own gas to help. I am very proud of the way everyone has helped each other in San Diego.

I am very saddened to see such great destruction and loss of property and lives. This is the time that all need to come together as one -- no matter what religion, race, or culture. We are all God's children -- so that makes us brothers and sisters. "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

I wanted to thank Deseret News for taking the time to write this article. I have family down near San Diego and yes they are LDS. I check deseretnews.com everyday because of it's extra added information about those of the LDS faith. Since According to the 2004 count, Utah is 62.4 percent LDS. I imagine it would behove advertisers, writers to market to the largest percent of the population. Thank you for the news Deseret News

Why? I was thinking ... what if deseret news reported Catholics and protestants affected ... it would be so random for a Utah newspaper to write that. Just like writing "help on the way" in the title when there is nothing in the article about help on the way.

Thanks for the pictures ... if you haven't seen it yet ... check it out now.

I'm from and in san diego and I'm grateful for desnews. I wished I could do more here ....

Eric
Get a life!!! There is nothing wrong with Deseret news writing a story about the Mormons affected in San Diego. Its probabley the only paper in the country that will. Move to another paper city if you dont like it. Jeezz.

The Deseret News is a local paper that caters to a local population and prints news that the local population is INTERESTED in reading. It so happens that a large portion of the local population are LDS. We are devastated by ALL the people effected by the tragedy in So Cal. But we are particularly interested in our Brothers and Sisters of our faith. There is a "family" element to it. IS there any thing wrong with that? It is what we are interested in reading and subscribe to. If you don't like the article, skip it! If you don't like the Newspaper, they do have a competitor. If they don''t print news you want to read, let them know! But don't tell them to NOT print news we want to read.