The 2018 wildfire season is the most destructive wildfire season on record in the history of California. More than 7,500 fires have destroyed over 2,600 square miles of land – an area more than five times the size of Los Angeles. Most (not all) of the fires have been contained at this time, but people in the affected areas are only beginning to get acclimated to life in the aftermath of the disaster.

Roughly 2,000 Teamsters that are under the jurisdiction of Joint Council 7 live in the affected areas. Reports that have been received so far indicate that over 100 members have lost their homes and many more are among the 52,000 displaced who don’t yet know if they have a home they can return to. The entire town of Paradise, home to many Teamster members, was destroyed in the inferno.

The recovery process will be long and arduous, and our members are in great need of donations to assist them through this difficult time. Any assistance that can be provided will go a long way towards getting our membership back to some level of normalcy following the blaze.

Donations can be made online to the Teamsters Disasters Relief Fund at http://tdr.teamster.org/. They can also be mailed to:

IBT Disaster Relief Fund
25 Louisiana Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20001

The charity fund is a 501(c)3. Donations are tax deductible.