Wildfire Victims Overwhelmed with Support

By: Sara Geake/Kim Eiten Email

Updated: Wed 7:10 AM, Jul 25, 2012

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www.redcross.org

Designate "Fairfield Creek Fire"

G.I. Hy-Vee accepting donations

The donations and volunteers keep coming in to the Ainsworth Fire Department.

"So much water, so much Gatorade, so much food," recounts Mindy Mangus, Central Plains Red Cross disaster services manager.

It's not a surprise to Red Cross leaders.

"The neighbors want to take care of each other," said Mangus. "The community coming out to help and the donations have just been pouring in; and it always touches me and here in Brown County is no exception."

Locals Carlene Burrows and Cammie Waits didn't need a call from the Red Cross to help out.

"Cammie came into the grocery store and I was working, and so I'd told her I'd help her," said Burrows, laughing.

Now they're part of the machine that is keeping firefighters going.

"My husband and son are both out there," said Waits. "I am worried. You're scared. You don't hear from them for two days, are they OK? Are they doing alright?"

As the worries mount, volunteers don't want one of them to be where fire crews' next meal will come from. They're making more than 400 lunches at a time for firefighters.

"Some of them haven't slept more than a couple of hours for the last three or four nights," said Andrew Lee, of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. "It's really important that they are able to get a meal, give them enough energy to keep going."

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