HOUSTON – Cooking meals is almost as synonymous with firefighters as fighting fires is.
On Wednesday, a group from Station 44 put their other skillset to good use.
“There’s no way that I can fix everything for everybody, but I know how to cook, so I can put some warm food out there for them,” Bucky Glenn said.
Glenn grilled up nearly 1,000 pounds of food, donated by HEB and Sam’s Club, so that he and fellow firefighters could distribute lunch to people in Harvey-hurt homes.
“All this is on our own, this is from our hearts. We love the citizens, we love our communities and so we’re trying to help them out,” Glenn said.
“No one deserves what happened here,” James Tharp said.
Tharp works with Glenn on C shift.
They were on duty Aug. 26 when the floodwaters began to rise. He saw the devastation flow in first-hand.
“I felt guilty about sleeping in my bed at home because I could see all the beds laid out here in the street and these people don’t even have beds, they don’t have a pillow,” Tharp said.
However, that’s not a sentiment shared by Karen Martinez and her family.
“For them to bring us food is like, we’re really thankful, 'cause they already did enough to help us during the storm,” Martinez said.
Yes, it’s a small act in the grand scheme of things, but Martinez said they add up.
“It makes me feel good, like, everybody’s here to help each other,” Martinez said.
“There’s nothing that can replace the hurt that’s in everyone’s heart right now 'cause we know that this is just a meal, it’s not fixing their homes, it’s not fixing their lives,” Glenn said.
As the days pass, images of damaged homes and giant trash piles will disappear, but that need still will be there.
The firefighters hope that the helpful spirit of Houston also will remain.
