 In the evening of August 4th, 2021, the Northern California Mountain Town of Greenville found itself in the path of the Dixie Fire. In roughly 30 minutes, this community of around 1,000 people was destroyed. And I'm watching it and just knowing how many of our people are affected, like, you know, we know our school is burned down, we know that staff and students have lost houses. What do we do? During the colossal devastation, Cal OAS immediately got to work executing an unprecedented recovery mission to get Greenville on the path to healing and restoration. It's rare, fortunately, that we see the true loss of an entire community, an entire town like we have here in Greenville. And with the cleanup of this magnitude came new challenges. Enrollment in the state's debris removal program is typically limited to residential properties with businesses and commercial properties included on a case-by-case basis. This wouldn't work in Greenville. We knew when you lose an entire downtown like we lost here in Greenville that that approach wasn't going to work. So we made the decision early to include all types of structures, consolidated community-wide cleanup is so, so important to allowing rebuilding to happen at community scale. But less than a year later, debris removal is nearing completion. We have close to 50 commercial parcels of the 400 parcels that are enrolled in the program. So about 350 residences, nearly all of those have been cleared to date. Clearing sites of wildfire debris is one component. Another key component to ensuring properties are safe for the public to return is the removal of hazardous trees. While crews are still hard at work, it's clear this town is close to the rebuilding phase. Big lift, the truck traffic, the heavy equipment, most of that is in the rear view mirror at this point and we're very proud and happy about that. This property, for instance, has already gone through all of the debris removal. The trees have been assessed and then the last step is once the erosion control is put into place then this property is ready to turn over back to the property owner. It's a blank canvas and they can begin building their new dream. Rebuilding Greenville also means reinstating the town's critical infrastructure. You see a building and the process of being rebuilt. This is a gas station, critical infrastructure for this community. This is a remote community and the ability to fill up their tanks, get those basic commodities and services here is crucial. And in an ironic twist of fate, the Dixie Fire that took homes and businesses also burned down local emergency services. The Indian Valley Fire Department Greenville fire station and one engine were lost in the blaze. Cal OAS quickly secured a site that would serve as a temporary home for staff and equipment. Your funding and support and help paid for all this to be flattened out, brought in for fill, put in an office for work out, not just fire department but our water and our sewer, our infrastructure. If OAS wasn't there, I didn't know what we would have done, be honest with you, by not having the station, having an office to work out of, a small training we would have worked out of and being able to haul our engines over there in freezing weather, not even frozen. Cal OAS also deployed a new fully equipped type 1 fire engine to Greenville, ensuring the firefighters could continue their efforts in keeping the community safe. We put it right to use and manned it, it's superior than anything else we had in our fire department. The Plumas County Sheriff's Office substation was also lost in the fire, but efforts are now underway to make a permanent base for the fire department and sheriff's office. Plus, for the first time ever to support displaced Greenville residents, Cal OAS secured temporary housing using state dollars. After a successful rollout, the program is now being managed by Plumas County. As Greenville finally looks to the future, residents can't help but remember those dark days after the flames were extinguished. It was very traumatic for everyone trying to re-assimilate and ground after that kind of crisis and try to hold everybody together and we were holding ourselves together for the kids a lot. Those children in Greenville also felt the devastation from the fire. When Plumas Charter School lost its Greenville Learning Center, teachers and staff decided moving its 50 students wasn't an option. Cal OAS teamed up with other state agencies to find classrooms and create a safe space for the children. Knowing that people care, knowing that their journey is validated in that way and then knowing now they have a safe place, I think that's been a very powerful journey for them. State representatives who we've never met, never dealt with just swooping in and kind of saving the day is how I felt and it was just, it was so profound for our staff and for me in particular to just feel that support. The building now sits in nearby Taylorsville and hosts three classrooms, two bathrooms and an office space, comparable to the previous school in Greenville. Most people see the outside the building, they don't maybe understanding what's underneath that, the sewer, the water, the well, the electrical hookup, you know, running into the septic. There's a whole almost city in this little square by Cal OAS taking care of that infrastructure and building piece. We got to focus on programming and curriculum and social-emotional learning and all of it. Getting these students back in the classroom is a symbol of progress. Just been like holding on in a corner, like we really have thrived and our kids have thrived. They've done activities that most schools do in a normal year. We are finally going, we did it. As families start planning for a future in Greenville, they haven't forgotten to preserve a little bit of Greenville's unique history that dates back to the Gold Rush Era. Cal OAS worked with locals to salvage pieces of the community's past, collecting bricks from historic buildings in downtown Greenville. It's a really important effort, typically, you know, a lot of this stuff that we're clearing from parcels that ends up in landfills. As the community feels that progress, laying a new foundation, brick by brick, it's a sign of Greenville's tenacious spirit and relentless resilience in the face of the community's most catastrophic disaster. To learn more about our recovery work in Greenville and statewide, go to news.caloas.ca.gov and follow us on all our social media platforms.