Fire Department Coffee Brings Relief and Hope to Western North Carolina

Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on September 26.

Category 4. 

140 mph winds raging.

Even for a region accustomed to the ravages of hurricane season. The storm was brutal.

Few then would have guessed that the place the storm would affect most deeply sat nearly 500 miles inland in Asheville, North Carolina, and the Blue Ridge mountain towns surrounding it.

Hurricane Helene walloped Florida, then Georgia, then South Carolina. It kept swirling northward until it finally unleashed its full fury on Western North Carolina. At Mount Mitchell, Helene dumped an astounding 32 inches of rain in a span of two hours.

The downpour brought instant floods and triggered massive mudslides, erasing small towns from the map as if they never existed. 

The trail of devastation stretched mile after mountain mile — displacing families, cutting off transportation and communication, and sending first responders into overdrive.

Weeks later, the damage is still being tallied. The state’s death toll is creeping toward 100. 

At Fire Department Coffee headquarters in Rockford, Illinois, in the immediate aftermath, it took time for the magnitude of the situation to sink in. As it did, we started making plans to help.

We quickly found that we had a lot of amazing friends ready to pitch in.

Our Disaster Relief Fire Truck In Action

In 2023, Rosenbauer America built out a special, fully loaded Avenger fire truck for FDC just for situations like these. 

It’s made to carry relief supplies and everyday essentials to the sites of natural disasters, supporting the first responders and those affected in any way we can.

We had taken the Rosenbauer fire truck to help in the aftermath of tornadoes in Tennessee, Iowa, and Wisconsin. This trip to North Carolina would take our relief efforts to another level.

We rallied a team of our friends in the industry — from big-hearted companies like FireTech/HiViz, IDEX Fire & Saftey and Kraken Power — and together we got the truck loaded and ready within days.

Lee Shaffer from HiViz hopped behind the wheel with FDC Operations Director Shawn Whalen, and the Rosenbauer fire truck, known as “Rescue 1,” headed south. It carried a full skid of water and coffee. For nutrition on the go, the team brought granola bars, fruit bars and other portable snacks, as well as instant meals, such as PhoLicious instant bowls and MREs.

The truck was stocked with personal protective equipment, blankets, socks, t-shirts, hats, gloves, heaters, and hand warmers, with some of the items generously donated by the Home Depot locations in Algonquin and Machesney Park, Illinois. We brought personal hygiene items — toothbrushes, toothpaste, feminine products, soap, deodorant, band-aids, first aid creams, baby wipes, disinfectant wipes, and laundry soap — ensuring that people had what they needed to maintain their dignity during difficult times.

By the time FDC’s Rosenbauer fire truck arrived on October 3, the floodwaters had receded, but the damage was impossible to ignore. Rural fire stations were stretched thin, and shelters housed hundreds of displaced residents. 

From the moment the truck rolled into North Carolina, it became a beacon of hope. Our first stop was the Canton Fire Department, where first responders immediately recognized the logo on the truck and welcomed our crew. 

FDC’s Randy James, who has led the Rosenbauer relief efforts, met the truck in North Carolina.

“These towns were miles apart, and each one was hit hard,” Randy said. “When you’ve been through something like that, just knowing someone came from far away to help — it means everything.”

Over the next two weeks, the FDC team visited more than two dozen fire stations, a local Walmart and community shelters, including the largest one in Asheville. Our Chief Creative Officer, Brad Flaherty, and his son Caden made the trip from Greenville, S.C. They, along with Randy, Shawn, Lee, and many other friends from our partner companies, did all they could to help in any way possible.

“When we walked into the shelter, there were rows of cots — 60 per row, four rows deep — cribs and playpens on one side, and an 84-year-old man on oxygen in the corner,” Randy said. “The people in that shelter had nowhere else to go. They were being cared for by some of the kindest volunteers I’ve ever met.”

At every stop, the team brewed coffee, handed out supplies, and — perhaps most importantly — listened. 

“Sometimes, all it takes is a cup of coffee and someone to talk to,” Randy said. “Firefighters are wired to fix things. They put their own needs aside for days, living at the station, helping strangers, while their own homes and families waited. We just showed up to remind them it’s OK to take a breath.”

A Heart Full: Leaving with Perspective and Looking to the Future

The Rosenbauer fire truck left Asheville on October 15 and headed back to Illinois to debrief and take stock of the lessons we’d learned so that we can help even more in the future. 

Leaving is always difficult.

“You feel like you’re abandoning them,” Randy admitted. “There’s so much left to do, but you know the next responders are coming in.” 

Ultimately, we left knowing that we’d helped, in whatever small ways we could. The gratitude shown to us by the people of North Carolina overwhelmed us.

“These people do 10 times more for me than I ever do for them,” Randy said. “Every time I leave, my heart is full, and I leave with a new perspective on what really matters.”

Carrying Hope Forward

Thanks to the support from partners like Rosenbauer, HiViz FireTech, IDEX Fire & Safety, Milliken, Deployed Logix and Kraken Power, the mission to Western North Carolina was a success. 

“The companies that invested in this project saw the need from the start. We owe them a ton for believing in it,” Randy said.

We’ve got big plans to enhance the capabilities of the truck to help in even more ways. But we also know that when it comes down to it, this trip wasn’t just about delivering supplies — it was about showing up for people when they needed it most. 

“When you show up and care, that’s what sticks,” Randy said. “The residents, the responders, they just want to know someone cares about what they’re going through. That’s what the truck rolling in means.”