Multiple Hotshots Lose Their Homes While Fighting The South Fork Fire In New Mexico.
The community helps.
As I discussed on the show today, more than 500 homes, businesses, and structures were burned down after the South Fork Fire swept through Ruidoso, New Mexico, last night. Some of those homes belonged to firefighters on the Smokey Bear Hotshots. Multiple crewmembers lost their homes while they were doing what they could to slow down the fire’s progression.
A fundraiser has been set up by a friend of the crewmembers and has asked if I would pass this along:
On the morning of Monday June 17th, two separate fires started on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation. Within 24 hours it had jumped to the Lincoln National Forest. Consuming over 13,000 acres and directly hitting the town of Ruidoso, NM. As of this writing over 500 structures have burned to the ground and the entire town is on mandatory evacuation with zero containment.
The Hotshot crew for The Lincoln NF are the Smokey Bear Hotshots. A well-known and loved crew of hard-working men and women. They were out working this fire when 5 of the crew learned their homes had been burned to the ground. Imagine that. While out on a fire that is just purely wicked, no controlling it, you learn your home and everything you own is just gone. And you're still at work...
If you're not familiar with wildland firefighters, especially hotshots... they work incredibly hard and selflessly all summer. In conditions that would drop most of us. They work through all the aches and pains, and life moments and poison oak, and extreme heat all to protect American citizens. They are NOT rewarded handsomely for it. They prepare for injuries on the job but not to lose everything they own.
My hope is to give this crew a fresh start—a way to continue working without stressing about what they'll eventually come home to. The government certainly isn't going to help their employees, so let's all please do it.
Michelle Levy
I have made a donation thanks to the help of subscribers here, and if you would also like to help out, the donation link can be found here.
There are going to be a lot of pieces to pick up once these fires are said and done. This community has been devastated.
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Donated and shared. God bless these crews.
Brutal