We are now in the heart of the wildfire season, and the Mountain Sky Conference Disaster Response Committee is asking for your help to build an inventory of UMCOR disaster recovery kits in our Conference depots. The UMCOR Depot in Salt Lake City has closed, so these kits will be stored at three of our churches – Johnstown, CO, Billings, MT, and SLC UT.  Specifically, UMCOR Cleaning Kits are needed along with three new supplemental kits designed to help with wildfire recovery. 

For the UMCOR Cleaning Kits, the initial ask is for funding to purchase the specific components that make up each kit.  Once funds are available, a follow-up request will be made for churches that would like to actually purchase the materials and assemble the kits.   The kits are very important in helping survivors clean up after a disaster. Each kit costs about $100 and we’d like to have 20 at each location. Donations for the UMCOR Cleaning Kits can be made by clicking on the following link: https://mtnsky-reg.brtapp.com/DisasterResponseFund.

 

Air Cleaning Kit

Cleaning after a wildfire poses special challenges. Based on the experiences of others in the Western Jurisdiction, we are planning to stock three types of wildfire cleaning kits to be used along with the usual UMCOR cleaning kits. These supplemental kits are:

• Soot Cleaning Kit:  Adds “dry cleaning” sponges for cleaning soot and smoke from papers, photos, textiles, and heirlooms.
• Air Cleaning Kit: Smoke from wildfires create huge amounts of air pollution which seeps into living spaces This kit is an inexpensive solution using a regular box fan and furnace filters.
• Ash Sifting Kit: After a home is consumed by fire, we may only be able to sift ashes to potentially locate personal belongings for the homeowners rather than doing any cleanup work.  This kit includes an ash sifter and the protective gear needed to safely sift ashes.