On a recent chilly morning in Hesperia, Alfredo Lara used a shovel to pour cement into a mound of concrete he'd shaped like a wide volcano for mixing. Nearby, his friend filled a bucket with water for the final ingredient. “Well, here we are, trying to carry on,” the 70-year-old said in Spanish. “But it hasn’t been easy at all, I’ve been really struggling.
In a written statement, the Economic and Workforce Development Department said staff from nearby resource centers spent four days canvassing the area and providing information about loans and services to people affected by the fire in English, Spanish and Korean. “Staff outreached to 83 businesses during this period,” the statement read. “The goal was to ensure that businesses received the support and resources they needed to recover and rebuild.