Disaster Aid Center Will Close Friday

On Friday, emergency officials will close the disaster relief center that has been open daily in Camarillo since four huge wildfires burned more than 70,000 acres of brush and destroyed 41 houses and mobile homes across the county.

“I think the majority of the people have been served,” said Wendy Haddock, assistant director of the sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services. “This past week we’ve had zero people coming in. That’s why we’re shutting it down.

Some property owners burned out in the massive Green Meadow fire that ripped across the Santa Monica Mountains south of Thousand Oaks may have gone instead to a disaster aid center set up in fire-torn Malibu, she said.

The center at the Sheriff’s Training Academy at 425 Durley Ave. in Camarillo is scheduled to close at 7 p.m. Friday, Haddock said.

Since the first fires flared Oct. 26 in Thousand Oaks, more than 70 people have used the center to apply for government disaster aid money, Haddock said.

The center helped 32 people apply for low-interest home repair loans and 24 for business repair loans from the Small Business Administration.

It also helped 23 low-income families who did not qualify for the loans to apply for outright grants of up to $12,200 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay for disaster-related needs, she said. And the center helped 29 people burned out of their property find immediate shelter, clothing and other aid from the Red Cross, she said.

And emergency officials helped people arrange for delivery of checks from the Social Security and Veterans Administrations and answered their questions about insurance claims and policies lost in the fires, Haddock said.

The center is to remain open today and Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The toll-free number for those who cannot travel to the center is 800-462-9029, or 800-462-7585 for teletype users.