Langhorne Community Wildfire Mitigation Preparation Day held
By DANIELLE REID
Patriot Publishing
American International Group (AIG), a multinational finance and insurance company, reported that the January 2025 wildfires in California resulted in property damages potentially reaching $131 billion. While this is for property damage/disaster relief in California, one local community is working toward disaster prevention by mitigating potential damage before a wildfire disaster.
With the help of Brad Wright, Pulaski County Emergency Management Coordinator, Deanie Hall of State Farm Insurance, Team Rubicon and Operation Blessing, the Langhorne Road Community is working toward preventing a wildfire disaster occurring in Pulaski.
The Langhorne Road Community Wildfire Mitigation Preparation Day began on May 1st and continued through Monday, May 5th with more than 30 volunteers participating. It was partially sponsored by Deanie Hall of State Farm Insurance, Dublin, who gave $500 matching funds to help cover the costs of fuel, chain saw oil, etc. Hall has been providing matching funds for Pulaski County Wildfire Mitigtion since 2018. Originally, her donations were to help feed the volunteers, but this year Operation Blessing was able to join the Wildfire Mitigation by providing meals for the volunteers.
Hall stated, “I wanted to help and support the Team Rubicon people who leave their families and friends in their communities to help protect our families and friends in our communities.”
“Always, from my heart, I wanted to help get this (potential wildfire damage) under control so lives and homes are not at risk. It’s to help and protect our community,” added Hall.
Wright stated, “We do this Community Wildfire Mitigation Preparation Day every year during the first weekend in May. In previous years, it’s been held at Draper Mountain Estates, but this year, the Langhorne Road Community was the specified location.“
Pulaski County Emergency Management’s mission is to minimize the impact of emergencies and disasters on the people, property, environment and economy of Pulaski County. This includes wildfires.
Wright stated that they have been working with the Langhorne Community through the Firewise Program, but Langhorne got hit really hard by the February ice storms, which added debris and fallen trees. Langhorne Community homeowners had been doing a lot of work on their own to actively mitigate any potential wildfire disasters. That’s when Team Rubicon stepped in to help.
Wright has wildfire mitigation module crew members who keep working on projects for at-risk communities as grant money is available.
“For those people who live in wooded areas, mitigation is their responsibility.” He encourages people to try to mitigate the risk to their homes and be prepared during fire season with a plan of evacuation, a go-bag, etc.
“People can go to our website, PulaskiCounty.org Emergency Management link, and sign up for the County’s Code Red Emergency System. Also, they can find many resources and tips to help them prepare on Firewise.org,” explained Wright.
John Warren, Team Rubicon Central Virginia Administrator and the “Greyshirt” volunteers of Team Rubicon support wildfire mitigation efforts around the country by clearing ground fuels, vegetative overgrowth and performing chainsaw services to clear downed and damaged tree debris, to lower the overall risk of wildfires.
Team Rubicon was founded following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and is Veteran-led by individuals who see the need for humanitarian aid before, during and after disasters.
Military Veteran Charlene Campbell said Team Rubicon holds frequent training sessions after the day’s work. She has applied some of that training while volunteering during three hurricanes, a tornado and a flood doing all sorts of jobs including mucking out buildings, putting tarps on roofs and on this project, saw work.
One of the things that most impressed Campbell is the comaraderie and sense of belonging the volunteers discover when contributing their talents in Team Rubicon.
“People from all walks of life are volunteers with Team Rubicon – former ER doctors, fighter pilots, multi-generational families. It’s as if we are immediately embraced by brothers and sisters with the same sense of purpose. We come together and get the job done,” she said.
Susan Agin, a Team Rubicon Greyshirt volunteer from Delaware, confirmed the closeness the team develops while working together.
“When we come together as volunteers it enriches our lives and the lives of those in need. We help to make them whole after a disaster, not only by mucking out a house or tarping a roof; but also by just listening. Team Rubicon provides an opportunity for them to put a voice to the tragedy.”
Warren realized that feeding Team Rubicon volunteers in-house logistically and financially was difficult. They discussed how to manage it and the option was to partner with another volunteer organization to see if they would be willing to help. The faith-based community of Operation Blessing stepped forward.
“It makes a big difference having Operation Blessing on board. They absorbed the cost and logistics of feeding the volunteers three meals a day. We were thankful that they were available,” stated Warren.
The two groups have crossed paths many times on other disaster sites, acknowledged Operation Blessing’s Senior Chef, Benjamin Bennett.
“Team Rubicon reached out to us asking for assistance with meal preparation. They have the volunteers and tools for disaster assistance and Operation Blessing has the equipment and staff to provide healthy meals. Both organizations want to support people in need when a disaster hits. It was a no-brainer decision.”
Operation Blessing provides more than meals at disaster sites. At “ground zero” in Asheville, N.C. the Operation Blessing volunteers handed out bags of relief, helped residents salvage precious belongings, and aided in debris removal and cleanup; and will continue to help there for another year. They believe their presence brings hope and inspiration to many hurting people.
One volunteer commented, “Don’t let the paper plates and plastic utensils fool you! The meals that the three-person team of Operation Blessing prepared during the Langhorne Wildfire Mitigation Preparation Day can rival any upscale restaruant.” These are professionally trained chefs who endeavor to provide delicious and nutritious meals. Try Beef Bourguignon or Linguine and Creamy White Clam Sauce for the Team Rubicon volunteers’ Saturday night dinner!
Senior Chef Benjamin Bennett confirmed the organization’s goal while on disaster relief missions is to make sure the volunteers get delicious, healthy meals and have an unrivaled volunteer experience. Often this relates to comfort food.
“We do our best to accommodate the volunteers’ specific food needs, like lactose free, gluten free, or vegatarian,” added food manager and chef Ben Hayward. The two chefs were in the process of preparing vegetable stuffed mushrooms for one of the volunteers. “We don’t do run-of-the-mill meals here. Our goal is to make sure everyone gets a delicious healthy meal.”
A typical day for the Operation Blessing chefs starts at 3:00 a.m. with Bible reading and prayer, then onto preparations for the three meals they will provide for the volunteers. Breakfast served at the Base Camp typically includes bacon, eggs, potatoes, some type of bakery or biscuit, occasionally corn beef hash. Lunch was brought by the chefs to the job site; then dinner was served back at the Base Camp around 6:30 p.m. Base Camp was stationed at the Pulaski Sportsplex in Dublin.
Langhorne Road Community spokesman, Mike Castle, praised the efforts of Pulaski County Emergency Management, Team Rubicon and Operation Blessing. “Brad Wright has helped out over the years with risk prevention, but this is the first time Team Rubicon has been here. We were excited to see them arrive and amazed by the amount of underbrush, small pines and dead trees they cleared. They were able to knock out so much in a short period of time. It would have taken us so much longer.”
Although there are other areas in Pulaski County that need wildfire mitigation, the Langhorne Road Community is one step closer to keeping their community safe from wildfires.
https://teamrubiconusa.org/how-to-get-involved/volunteer-with-us/
https://www.ob.org/disaster-relief/volunteer/
