A large stack of bottled water packages remains Wednesday morning near the Wood County Emergency Management incident command post for the Peoples Cartage warehouse facility fire on Camden Avenue, as officials began to demobilize while the site shifts to its cleanup phase. (Photo by Christina Myer)

PARKERSBURG – Local firefighters fighting the Peoples Cartage fire had gotten a lot of support from the community through donations to make sure they were well taken care of.

The community’s support for efforts of the local fire departments who were fighting the fire over the past few days has been outstanding, said Angie Stewart, firefighter with the Lubeck Volunteer Fire Department and member of the department’s auxiliary.

“There are no words for how wonderful the community has been,” she said. “It has just been amazing how the community has pulled together.”

Since the word went out on social media Sunday by Stewart’s daughter, Ashley Ong, the department has had a steady stream of donations from the community with people bringing in food, clothing, toiletries and more.

From the time Ong made the first post, within 20 minutes they had people at the department with donations.

“We had our bays open and through the day and night we had cars lined up continuously,” Stewart said. “Unless someone was here to see it, you can’t explain it.”

People have donated a lot of bottled water, Gatorade, toilet paper, paper towels, To-Go boxes and any kind of snacks people could think of, Stewart said. They also have gotten trash bags, fruit, plates, lunch meat, bread, buns, hot dogs, hot dog sauce and more. One woman brought in a slow cooker of chicken to allow firefighters to make sandwiches.

People have also brought in t-shirts and socks and more to allow personnel on the scene to be able to change their clothes.

“Anything you can think of, we have had,” Stewart said. “I don’t have the words to thank everybody.

“The guys have been well fed and taken care of.”

The donations were gathered and taken down to the site where personnel have side-by-side vehicles that they have taken items around to personnel at the scene, she said. There was also a room where donations were taken and personnel at the scene could stop in and get something as their time and responsibilities allowed.

“We were feeding between 100-125 people the first two days,” Stewart said.

By Tuesday, the number had gone down as personnel have been able to leave the scene as the fire was put out. For dinner Tuesday, she was told to plan to feed 50-75 people.

As of Tuesday evening, the fire fighting efforts at the site had what they needed.

“We are good,” Stewart said. “At this point, we are in need of nothing.”

The Wood County Resiliency Center had also been collecting donations over the past couple of days and coordinating with the Wood County Sheriff’s Department and Wood County Emergency Services, said Sydney Weber, director of the Wood County Resiliency Center.

Donations included hydration sticks, water bottles, snacks, toilet paper, hydration towels and more, she said.

Weber said they too had received a lot of donations and did not need any additional ones at this time.

However, no more items are needed at this time. Weber said their donations will be given out in the coming days as crews begin work at the scene once the fire is completely out and doing all the investigative and cleanup work that comes with that.

“This isn’t over even when they get the fire out,” Weber said. “There is going to be a lot more work to do.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com