News

Volunteers and donations feed Edneyville wildfire firefighters

Scott Major, a firefighter with Etowah Horse Shoe fire department, grabs some snacks Wednesday at the Poplar Drive fire command post.

By Amy McCraw, Published: November 9, 2023

Firefighters battling the Poplar Drive fire in Edneyville face many challenges from the stubborn, smoldering fire itself to the difficult steep terrain they must climb to do their jobs.

But one thing they don’t have to worry about is finding enough to eat when they leave the fire lines.
“Look at all that water,” Mike Morgan, the chief communications officer for Henderson County, said on Wednesday as he surveyed the numerous donations piled up in and around the command post for the fire.
From the time the fire began to spread on Friday night into Saturday morning, county residents have made their way to the command post off Fruitland Road to drop off drinks, snacks, sandwich meat and everything else the firefighters might need. Local restaurants provided meals and local bakeries sent doughnuts.
A room in the Fruitland Baptist Church fellowship hall at the command post was filled by mid-week with snacks available to the 222 personnel involved in fighting the fire.
By Wednesday, a large truck and volunteers from the North Carolina Baptist Men Disaster Relief program had also arrived at the command post to cook hearty, hot meals for the firefighters.
The truck includes a tent where meals are cooked in convection ovens, said Ronnie McMahan, a volunteer with the organization. The kitchen is rated to cook 20,000 meals per day.
McMahan described those meals as “real food. We’re actually cooking this. It’s hearty food.”
The menu for some the week’s meals included steak and gravy, roasted pork with vegetables, spaghetti and barbecue chicken.
Plates are piled high and seconds are fine, McMahan said.
“These people work hard,” he said. “It takes an incredible amount of energy to do what they do.”
The group also sends firefighters going out to work with bags full of sandwiches and snacks.
N.C. Baptist Men serve their communities throughout the state in 10 different regions. The volunteers in Edneyville this week serve part of Western North Carolina.
“The Lord directs us to help others and this is a wonderful way to do it,” McMahan said.
The command post does not currently need any donations, Morgan said Thursday.
County officials, especially the firefighters and emergency responders at the fire, are extremely thankful for the donations they received, he said.
“We knew we had a great community and they have shown up in a mighty way,” Morgan said.