VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Over the last few days, members of Operation Blessing out of Virginia Beach have been in Hutchinson County, Texas to help they can to first responders battling the state's largest fire.
"All the structures on your property are gone, the fence is gone, and you've lost livestock, I think it's broken some of those people," Drew Friedrich, COO of Operation Blessing, said.
Friedrich described what some of his disaster relief team are seeing in the areas of Borger and Fritch Texas, an area surrounded by the Smokehouse Creek Fire.
The wildfire so far has burned more than a million acres of land and is less than 40% contained.
"It's larger than the state of Rhode Island it's a huge fire," Friedrich said.
Operation Blessing normally responds to tornado and hurricane relief efforts, but they left Hampton Roads last week to see what help it could provide in Texas.
"With water, we've put together some first responder care kits that we could serve those folks and, in the process, be able to help anybody that has been displaced, who has had to evacuate their home or has lost some property in the process," Friedrich said.
He said every morning he has had a call with his team who said the fire has been unpredictable.
"It was 80 degrees on Monday, then snowing on Thursday, then that weekend it got hot and dry and windy again," Friedrich said. "So things change very quickly when you're dealing with fire."
Friedrich said this crew will likely stay until next week and continue to try and help provide support where needed.
He said the reason why they want to help our neighbors is because you never know when we could use the same help.
"I think that's why it matters because it could be us one day, it could be a loved one," Friedrich said. "It's someone's brother, sister, father or mother, and I would want someone to go help my mom if she was in need. So as often as we can, we're going to go help."
If you would like to help Operation Blessing with its relief efforts click here.
