Responding to raging wildfires, Florida Baptists in the past weeks have opened their doors to fire suppression crews and residents of their communities, providing shelter, food and staging facilities.
A member of the Clay County, Fla., Fire Department lays down water on smoldering underbrush .While more than 163,000 acres have burned in more than 225 fires throughout Florida, the firestorm – fueled by lightning strikes and arsonists in severe drought conditions – forced evacuations and closed down major highways, causing traffic jams throughout Mother’s Day weekend.
Peppering 57 of the 67 counties in Florida, the fires, spewing acrid smoke into otherwise mostly clear skies, are being fed by unusually dry air and wind gusts related to a number of storms moving through various parts of the state. Anticipated rainfall has come up short in areas directly affected.
At Hope Baptist Church in Starke, Fla., in a community where two large fires converged to char more than 18,000 acres, more than 350 firefighters and other public safety personnel worked out of the church round-the-clock for nearly a week to contain fires in the area.
Dozens of fire trucks, forestry bulldozers, tanker trucks and other fire-suppression related machinery and workers were entering and leaving a large unpaved lot just west of the church, with Salvation Army feeding vans, Florida State Highway Patrol and other command center vehicles and media trucks on the east side.
Smoke was still thick in Bradford County, Fla., May 10 after the Bradford wildfire, which had already consumed about 1,500 acres, merged with a 200-acre fire in Alachua County.The largest and “most sturdy” building in the immediate area, the church has never staged such a massive effort, although it was used as a shelter for some families during fires in 1998 and in 2003 – and for hurricane relief efforts in 2004 – according to pastor Gene Coons.
“We’ve never had this kind of an organization,” Coons told the Florida Baptist Witness May 10. “You’re looking at practical Christianity instead of merely professing Christianity.”
Hope Baptist got involved when members of the Theressa Volunteer Fire Department in Starke responded to the Bradford County fire May 7. More than half of their personnel – whose station is about a block away – are members of the church.
Firefighter wives and families joined with other members of the congregation to begin feeding and housing fire-suppression personnel and those displaced by smoke and flames.
Utilizing the church’s large kitchen and walk-in refrigerator, a rotating crew cooked 24/7 to serve meals in the fellowship hall, which seats 400 people.
At one end of the room, long tables offered lip balm, toiletries and other emergency care supplies. Outside the church doors were pallets of bottled water and chests of ice.
“It’s been a community effort, but primarily led by our church,” Coons said. “Our people are just doing what comes natural for people who walk with the Lord.”