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Call for disaster supplies – It’s Fire and Flood Season

by | Jan 5, 2022 | Featured-News, Mission Opportunities

fire-relief buckets

By Mike Eyer and Tom Mattick

Download the items from this post and share this request with your friends, family, and in your church news.


Last week’s devastating fires in Boulder County, Colorado, present an immediate need for TWO SPECIFIC TYPE OF DISASTER SUPPLIES – FIRE RELIEF BUCKETS AND ASH SIFTERS.

2020 and 2021 have seen perhaps the greatest number, intensity, area, destruction, and property damage of any fires in known history – not only in the U.S. but around the world. Firefighters, state and federal agencies, and disaster networks in Northern California, Oregon, Washington State, Utah, and Idaho have been working continuously to prevent deaths, to bring fires under control, to save communities, to prevent property loss.

And immediately on the tail end of fires comes flooding caused by forest damage – more property damage. And hurricane season in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean is just beginning.

Desert Southwest Conference of United Methodist Churches has THREE Disaster Supply Hubs, located at:

  1. Trinity UMC, 3104 W Glendale Avenue, Phoenix
  2. Prescott UMC, 505 W Gurley St, Prescott
  3. Christ Church UMC, 655 N Craycroft Rd, Tucson

How can churches and church members assist at this time of unprecedented natural (and man-caused) disaster?

Ash sifter assembly

Photo by Mike Eyer

Assemble Resource Kits and Supplies.

Your church and church groups – youth, seniors, children, men’s groups, women’s groups, Bible study classes, choirs, mission groups – can assemble disaster resource kits. The Disaster Response Committee needs Fire Relief Buckets and Ash Sifters. If your congregation would like to host (and fund – Ash Sifters cost about $6 each) an exciting day to assemble Ash Sifters but you don’t have the equipment or know where to start, you can get assistance setting up a build. Contact Tom Mattick or Lorraine/Mike Eyer for further information.

Fire Relief Buckets (Approximate cost $60)

Note: Fire Resource Buckets are especially needed in the Western Jurisdiction as other Jurisdictions do not solicit or stock them (or Ash Sifters)

  • fire-relief buckets

    Photo by Mike Eyer

    1 5-Gallon bucket with re-sealable lid – Buckets from fast-food restaurants or bakeries can be used if washed and cleaned -Do not use buckets that have stored chemicals such as paint or pool cleaner. Advertisements on the outside are acceptable

  • Tyvek coveralls—XL or XXL (can tape them up for smaller bodies)
  • 5 N95 dust masks (or similar if not available)
  • 2 pair work gloves
  • 8 pair Nitrile gloves to wear under work gloves
  • 1 pack of at least 28 disinfecting wipes or multi-purpose cleaning wipes
  • 1 box cutter
  • 1 roll duct tape
  • 2 Soot sponges (advertised to use for cleaning fireplaces)
  • 6 Heavy duty construction trash bags (33-45 gallons)
  • 1 Hand hoe
  • 1 Hand trowel

Additional supplies that are not in Fire Resource buckets, but also useful are square-nosed shovels and rakes.

18’x18” Ash Sifter (Approximate Cost $6-9, depending on lumber cost)

Note: Ash Sifters are especially needed in the Western Jurisdiction as other Jurisdictions do not solicit or stock them (or Fire Resource Buckets)

Please do not alter the dimensions of Ash Sifters to “improve them;” it causes difficulties with transportation and storage. (18” is the MAXIMUM dimension for the hardware cloth square; cutting greater than 18” doesn’t make the sifter better, it leaves sharp wire “tails” on the edges of the Sifter! 17½” is better than 18½”) Click on the image below to see the entire graphic.

Download the items from this post and share this request with your friends, family, and in your church news.

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Author: DSC Communications

The Desert Southwest Conference is a diverse and loving organization with open doors to a variety of people and partners in ministry. Celebrating our connection and diversity, we offer various resources. Content on this site includes information from other organizations that may not reflect the official policies or Social Principles of The United Methodist Church or the Desert Southwest Conference.

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