Kentucky forest fires avoid SWAP facilities and volunteers' homesMennonite Central Committee Kentucky Forest fires in eastern Kentucky reached the edge of the MCC forestry camp and other property in Harlan, Ky., but now seem to be under control. Scott Siemens, co-director of the Serving With Appalachian People program, reported, "We spent all of Wednesday to Friday (Nov. 1-3) working on creating fire-breaks both on the mountain and here in our holler. The camp has been burned right up to the edge of our yard area, but all buildings were protected (we didn't even end up with any roast chicken or pig) with the exception of one old outbuilding where we lost a portion of the roof."  Fires came within several hundred feet of the Siemens home, and also threatened the land around MCC volunteers David and Rachel Roth Sawatzky's house. Fires in Letcher County, where program coordinators Ellie and James Huebner live, were extinguished by Monday. Fueled by drought-like conditions, fires are burning across North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee as well as eastern Kentucky. Most of the 35 to 40 fires in Kentucky are in rural, isolated areas. Arson is suspected in 80 percent of the fires that have begun since Oct. 30.
For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org |
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