SHAMOKIN, Pa. — Captain Daniel Sessions of Shamokin Fire Bureau was washing down tombstones that were burned and stained after a brush fire last week.
Fire companies from Northumberland County and the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources battled the wildfire.
Forest Hills Fire Company Captain Matthew Lauro says it was one of the largest he's ever seen.
"It's been pretty much almost the entire cemetery. We brought air tankers in their airplanes that drop a fire retardant when they make their passes, the wind picks up some of the retardant in them. There's a stick to the substance, and it wiped out some of the tombstones," Lauro said.
Once the blaze was out, Lauro, along with several other fire departments, came back days later to clean up the damage.
"There was a lot of people concerned about their tombstones which are very expensive, staining or ruining them, so myself and another captain, Mike Dates of the Coal Township Heavy Rescue Squad. We got talking, and we decided to bring our brush truck up here and clean some of that. We started at one end, and we started cleaning tombstones," Lauro explained.
More than 50 volunteers from the local community and several fire departments came to replace tattered American flags and clean off hundreds of tombstones.
Once the tombstones were scrubbed and washed, volunteers like Benjamin Straub Jr. grabbed a handful of more than 400 donated American flags that would replace the ones that either burned or stained.
"There's a lot of veterans buried up here in the cemetery. Some of the people I talk to here glad that we are doing this. They only think the fire department is there to fight fires, but they are here to help the people," Straub said.
Captain Lauro says the wildfire risk is still high.
He asks residents to use caution during this dry time of the year.
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