Volunteers keep firefighters fed at Golden Gate Estates brush blaze
At the crack of dawn Tuesday, Pat Roberts rolled up at the McDonald's near Davis and Collier boulevards and picked up breakfast.
A couple hundred breakfast sandwiches. About 15 gallons of coffee between there and the Dunkin’ Donuts next door. Her truck was already stocked with bags of apples, loads of cereal bars, cases of water and Gatorade, and packs of candy bars.
And that was a light breakfast.
“Today is the first quiet day that we’ve had to sit down,” said Roberts, a volunteer with Florida’s Southern Gulf chapter of the Red Cross, which helped provide breakfast Tuesday for more than 100 first responders and firefighters battling a massive brush fire in eastern Collier County.
“And that can either be really good or really bad, because they’re either all in or it’s rotating out,” Roberts said. “They’re still all out there.”
On Tuesday afternoon Roberts, 57, and fellow Red Cross volunteer Michael Sload, 69, sat beneath a blue tent next to their Red Cross truck parked in a large lot near Davis and Collier boulevards. Across from them, Salvation Army volunteers worked to erect a tent in front of their own truck.
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It is here where fire crews meet each morning for a briefing at 6:30 a.m. and to grab a quick bite.
Since Thursday, firefighters from nearly every corner of the state have been battling a blaze in Golden Gate Estates that by Tuesday afternoon had covered 7,068 acres and was 75 percent contained.
North Collier fire officials a few days ago told the Weather Channel in a video that the cause of the massive brush fire was a lawnmower that hit a rock, causing a spark that ignited dry vegetation.
But authorities have said the fire remains under investigation.
“We come out before they head back out, and we serve a hot breakfast,” Roberts said. “They have breakfast here and then we load them up with snacks and Gatorades and water and apples.”
Many of the things Roberts and her fellow volunteers provide to the crews are donated by residents , churches, restaurants or grocery stores.
Early Tuesday a group of women dropped off trays with sandwiches. Last week a chiropractor set up shop in the lot for two days to treat firefighters’ ailments for free. He told firefighters he would treat them free of charge for a week if they wanted to visit his practice, Roberts said.
“The community is so phenomenal about those things,” she said. “People are, if given the opportunity, are amazingly gracious.”
Roberts is part of a small army of helpers who make sure fire crews are well-fed and cared for. More than 70 volunteers and employees from the Red Cross have been working since last week to arrange for meals.
On Saturday — the high point — the Red Cross partnered with a local church and served some 500 first responders with breakfast, lunch and dinner, said Jill Palmer, executive director for the Red Cross chapter.
Those numbers don’t take into account all the snacks and water the volunteers provide throughout the day, she said.
Since Monday, the Salvation Army has been serving lunch and dinner to the firefighters, said Ashley Jones, the organization’s director of social services.
That day they dished out 257 meals from their full-service kitchen on wheels. On the menu: hot dogs. It turned into an eating contest, she said.
“The hot dogs were a big hit,” said Kally Proctor, communications manager for the Salvation Army. “It was great, especially since they were on a grill.”
All in all, some 20 people have had a hand in running the Salvation Army’s efforts to feed the crews, she said.
On Tuesday evening firefighters chowed down on spaghetti. Wednesday it’ll be meatloaf and mashed potatoes, Jones said.
Roberts and Sload’s little tent, meanwhile, was stocked like a small convenience store. There was sunscreen, batteries, allergy relief medicine, vitamins, cough drops, apples, crackers, chocolate pound cake, Life Savers, chips, popcorn, Nutri-Grain bars, candy bars, water, Gatorade and Twizzlers.
Since last week, Roberts has been manning her little mobile one-stop shop. The volunteer work brings out her motherly instincts, she said.
And sure enough, when a firefighter from Greater Naples Fire Rescue stopped by the tent Tuesday afternoon, she was Johnny-on-the-spot.
“What do you need, my dear?” she asked. “We have Twizzlers.”
She stepped through the open doors of the Red Cross truck.
“This is how much I love you — found some,” she said.
Roberts has been volunteering with the Red Cross in Collier since October. She was here in early March when another brush fire raged not far from where her truck stood Tuesday.
“You can only play so much golf,” Roberts said, her voice lowered to a whisper. “After a while it’s like, I could be getting a manicure, or I could be doing something that matters to me.”
The firefighters matter a great deal to her. She has been around them a lot the last few days. She knows what makes them tick.
“It’s a job to them until property is involved, and then it becomes this calling that they just get rabid about,” Roberts said. “If it’s trees and things and they’re eating smoke all day, it’s like, ‘Eh, it’s part of the job.’ But when structures (are involved), it’s like a death in the family. … They’re not happy when they’ve had loss of, when it’s affected someone’s thing.”
As firefighters have made progress on the blaze, more and more crews — especially those from faraway counties — have been able to head back home, Roberts said. Tuesday was the first day, she said, that Red Cross crews were able to head home before dark.
They’ll return Wednesday at the first light of day.
“We’ll be back at the crack of dawn,” Roberts said. “We’ll be back until there’s not another firefighter left.”
Cowbell fire update
The Cowbell brush fire in eastern Collier that began earlier this month is 21,840 acres and 75 percent contained, with 245 personnel assigned, officials said Tuesday. The Mile Marker 87 fire is now 516 acres, 80 percent contained, with 34 personnel assigned.
By Wednesday the Type 1 Incident Management Blue Team plans to transition to a smaller organization due to the reduced fire activity of the Cowbell and Mile Marker 87 fires.
Firefighting resources on both fires will continue to improve containment lines, mop up hot spots and patrol and monitor the fires' perimeter.
Smoke will continue to be visible from the fires' interior as both fires continue to smolder with logs, stumpholes and snags burning.
The fire will continue to consume unburned fuel within the containment lines, as the fuels dry out with the warmer temperatures and lack of rain expected through the rest of the week.
While the Cowbell and Mile Marker 87 fires are not expected to increase in size, the current drought conditions are expected to persist until sufficient rainfall results in ground water levels returning to post-drought levels.
The current conditions are favorable for fire in grass and shrubs. All plant life has the potential to burn, including those that appear green.