GILLETTE, Wyo. — The community in Gillette has rallied behind the Campbell County Fire Department as it fights back two fires just outside Gillette proper. They’ve rallied so hard, in fact, that the CCFD has had to ask people to stop bringing donations to firehouses, saying they have reached “maximum capacity” to store them.
According to a Facebook post from the department Thursday morning, the community responded in a variety of ways and the department could not thank the community enough for its help. “We kindly request that people refrain from making any more donations for the time being. We have seen an outpouring of support and it’s truly humbling,” the post read.
Community members across town launched into action last night to drop off donations including packaged snack foods, Gatorade and face cleansing wipes for firefighters.
HomeTown Motors, owned by Brandon Jagow, launched a collection drive of its own. Dubbing the effort “Heap the Jeep,” manager Karen Swartz put out a call on Facebook for donations to be dropped off at the dealership. Collection efforts have expanded from filling a Jeep on the property, and donated items now fill the bed and backseat of an additional truck on site.
Employee Tinna Swartz, Karen’s daughter, says fire is a danger the family has firsthand knowledge of.
Her grandparents’ home in Riggins, Idaho, burned down on Christmas morning in 2009, and a barn that had stood on the family ranch in McCall, Idaho, went up in flames a few years later. Community efforts were integral in getting the family back on its feet.
“All our Christmas presents got burned,” Swartz said. “We had a whole outreach of the community in Riggins that bought us Christmas presents, paid for our hotel to stay, and then we had the whole community help build the house back up from ground up.”
Their firsthand experience gave them another reason to want to help out and thank firefighters for their work. “It’s just really appreciated that they’re doing everything in their power, day and night to make sure that we’re safe and that the fire doesn’t come any closer to town,” Swartz said.
With CCFD putting donations on hold, the family plans to bring the donations across the county line to Buffalo to donate to their fire and police departments and paramedics.
Help has come in other forms from local businesses as well. Chase Holmes, director of sales at the Home2 Suites in Gillette, had prepared to offer a free first night to those in need and fielded calls from residents all night. While they had unfortunately reached capacity last night, Holmes said they were prepared to open their doors to those in need.
“We haven’t had anyone call to request that or say anything that they were being relocated as of yet,” Holmes said early Thursday afternoon. “I’m not sure if they’re just kind of trying to get things together before they decide where they’re going. But either way, we’re here if we need they need something, and we’ll try our best.”
Raised in California, Holmes knows how quickly fire can spread and commended the CCFD for its work in already sweltering temperatures.
The hotel is also housing the Billings Flying Service, an aerial firefighting outfit based in Billings that arrived last night to assist CCFD with firefighting. A Chinook helicopter was in flight over the south end of town on Thursday afternoon.
Businesses of all sizes in town work closely with the CCFD and know the amount of hard work the department puts in to ensure the safety of the community. Aaron Lyles, executive director at CAM-PLEX, said staff there donated cases of water left over from their own all-hours work week during Camporee.
The cases, sourced from Pepsi, could have stayed put in CAM-PLEX for use at a later date, but Lyles said the department had a more pressing need for supplies at the moment.
“I’m not sure that any of us can really appreciate the sacrifice it takes to do that work,” Lyles said, “so something like the donation of water, we hope that it’s just more help than hurt. You know, it’s sometimes hard to manage things like that from their end, but we just wanted to help and be supportive.”
As of late Thursday afternoon, the department has not reopened donations as they are well-stocked from a flurry of support earlier in the day. To stay up to date on CCFD news, follow its Facebook page.
