Caldwell County Emergency Services to collect donations for fire fighters battling Burke County Fire

LENOIR, NC (November 16, 2016)…Caldwell County Emergency Services will begin collecting donations of supplies for the fire personal battling the South Mountain Fire (Chestnut Knob Fire) in Burke County, from 1 to 6 p.m. today through Friday at the Caldwell County Health & Human Services Building (HHS), at 2345 Morganton Blvd., Lenoir.

“Burke County Emergency Services as well as Caldwell County Emergency Services have been receiving phone calls from citizens wanting to help the fire fighters that have been battling these woods fires day and night for days and will continue to battle them for days to come,” explains Kenneth Teague, Caldwell County Emergency Management Coordinator. “We want to the make sure the donated items get to the correct place to assist not only the firefighters themselves but the Incident Management Teams as well.”

Donations will be accepted at the donations trailer set up at the HHS Building. It is important that ONLY the below listed items be donated. Any donated items left over will be sent to fire fighters battling other fires across the state.

Items needed for the donation are as follows:

• Beef Jerky
• Wool Caps/Toboggans
• Bandanas
• Energy Bars
• Bottled Water (16oz)
• Gatorade (12 or 16 oz)
• Socks, medium to large size work or boot socks
• Travel Size Hand Wipes
• Travel Size Hand Lotion
• Travel Size Gold Bond Foot Powder
• Work Gloves
• Saline Eye Drops
• Lip Balm

The trailer will be manned by Caldwell CERT members (Community Emergency Response Team), the Kings Creek Fire Corp and residents of Bethel Colony of Mercy in Lenoir.

For more information, go to the Caldwell County website at www.caldwellcountync.org or the Burke County Website at www.burkenc.org and click on links on the front pages.

Citizens can also call the fire information hotline at 828-764-9380 or email to Chestnutknobfire@gmail.com.