Fire Equipment Charity Seeks Help Upon Losing Home

LINDSTROM, Minn. (AP) -- A Minnesota charity is looking for some help of its own as it faces shutting down if it can't find an angel donor after losing its home.

The International Fire Relief Mission in Lindstrom has collected donated fire and EMS equipment from fire departments across the United States since 2007, and shipped those goods to underfunded and undertrained fire departments around the world from locations as far-flung as Honduras and Moldova. Since its inception, the mission has stored its goods in the warehouse of a local manufacturer, Rosenbauer America.

Now that company is expanding and needs to take back its space. Mission president Ron Gruening says the charity's considerable and growing need for storage space could put it out of business if it doesn't find $10,000 soon to continue its work uninterrupted.

The International Fire Relief Mission has no religious or political affiliations and its members draw no salary.

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