Nov 15, 2008 - Claremont, Calif. - The following message was sent to the Harvey Mudd College community this evening by Guy Gerbick, interim dean of students:

A series of fires are hitting areas around Southern California. In case anyone is concerned for her/his safety on campus, the fires are nowhere near Claremont and are not anticipated heading in our direction. Air quality, given the direction of the winds, should also not be a problem.

The fires started on Friday near Santa Barbara. Another fire hit near Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley last night. This morning one started in Corona (the city you see at the at the far base of the hills to southwest of campus) and spread westward to the other side of the Chino Hills (the ones to the southeast of Claremont). There have been a large number of homes lost, but there have been minimal injuries reported at this point. Further information about the fires is at:

http://www.fire.ca.gov/index_incidents_info.php

 or check any local news source.

If the fires began to be considered a threat to campus, we would notify everyone via the ConnectED system, which has been tested several times lately. You would also find emergency information via our Emergency Preparedness Information web page at:

http://www.hmc.edu/about/administrativeoffices/emergencypreparednessandsafety1/info.html

or its companion site:

http://www.hmcemergency.info/.

If your family lives in an area affected by the fires, please let me or someone in the Dean of Students Office know if we can help you in any way. You can call Campus Safety at 909-607-2000 for a response tonight. If you are from outside the Southern California area and your parents are the worrying kind, it would be best to give them a call to tell them you're okay.