Volunteers return from Colorado wildfire zone after 10-day deployment

COVINGTON, Ga. – Members of a Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief team have returned from Colorado where they helped wildfire survivors sift through ashes where homes once stood.

One shovelful at a time, the volunteers sifted through the remains in search of anything that might have survived the flames that swept through Boulder County on Dec. 30, destroying nearly 1,100 homes.

Each find – whether a ring, coin or piece of pottery – brought tears of joy to the homeowners, said Kemal Joseph of Social Circle, a member of First Baptist Church in Covington.

“It was a tremendous joy to be there with the homeowners and try to give them a little bit of comfort, a little of hope that things will be OK,” Joseph said.

The 10-member team left Georgia on Feb. 14 on the special mission to reunite wildlife survivors with some of their most priceless possessions. They were joined by volunteers from 12 other states during the deployment.

“Basically, we searched through the ashes looking for personal possessions that may be covered up, that survived the fire,” he said. “We were shoveling that ash into a sifter. One person would shovel and another person would sift.”

Joseph said the work wasn’t difficult, especially in comparison to the back-breaking tasks they face in hurricane or tornado zones, but it was just as rewarding.

“I found a clay pottery piece that was still intact and unharmed that I didn’t think was anything important at all,” he said. “When I handed it to the lady, she started crying. It was very sentimental. One of the volunteers found a beautiful red stone ring and gave it to the lady. Apparently, this ring had been given to her by her mother and meant a whole lot to her. She just broke down and started crying.”

In one home, the volunteers found more than 1,000 pounds of coins, enough to fill 10 five-gallon buckets. They also found some gold bars and silverware blackened by the heat and flames.

“Every trip that Disaster Relief goes on, we go and try to bless these people and bring hope, but it never fails we always get a bigger blessing than the ones we’re helping,” Joseph said. “It is so emotional to be able to go and help people, especially these people. They’ve lost everything that they own. They got no warning at all. These people had like two and three minutes to get out of their homes or die. The fire was coming that fast.”

The Georgia Baptist Mission Board has more than 7,000 trained Disaster Relief volunteers – people who Ricky Thrasher, the interim director of Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief, describes as unsung heroes who leave their families for extended periods to help people in crisis.

Over the past year, they’ve deployed to help victims of hurricanes, tornadoes and floods, working long hours for no pay under difficult conditions to do a variety of tasks. In the eastern U.S., that typically means the yellow-clad volunteers saw up fallen trees, carry away soggy furniture and shovel mud out of homes.

“Our folks are always ready to help people in need,” Thrasher said. “When we issued the call out this time, we had more people volunteer for the mission than we could send.”

Colorado Baptist Disaster Relief Director Dennis Belz said Disaster Relief teams have found more than 100 diamond rings, wedding bands and class rings.

“We have found lots of valuable items, including coins that a military veteran brought back from Afghanistan,” Belz said. “We have found Purple Hearts. We even found undamaged pictures beneath the ashes.”