PATEROS — After the largest wildfire in Washington’s history destroyed hundreds of homes and burned hundreds of square miles in north-central Washington, donations poured in.
Officials are thankful for the gifts, but they’re now pleading with the public to stop donating goods and asking them to donate money instead. They have enough, perhaps too much stuff.
“I think donations might very well be a second disaster,” Jennifer Dolge, director of donor services and communications for the Community Foundation of North Central Washington, told the Wenatchee World. “There’s just so much stuff and now they have to figure out what to do with it all.”
Donations for the Carlton Complex fire now fill up three warehouses, two gymnasiums, community distribution centers and several semi-trucks that have not been unloaded. Tens of thousands of diapers, truckloads of dog food and pallets of water came in the days after the fire destroyed homes in Pateros and the Methow Valley.