Texas AFL-CIO communications director Ed Sills sends us this report:

The Texas AFL-CIO donated $150 gift cards to nine Central Texas volunteer fire departments that battled the rash of summer blazes.

Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller and Director of Human Relations Lee Forbes praised the departments for their bravery during the long struggle to protect life and property in blazing summer heat. Bastrop and many other Texas counties were declared federal disaster areas following the fires.

At a meeting of volunteer departments in Cedar Creek where the cards were presented, Moeller said:

The generosity of union members and friends in setting up the Wildfire Relief Fund made a difference to many working families who received gift cards to buy work tools and other necessities that might otherwise have fallen through the cracks in the aftermath of losing homes and, in some cases, livelihoods. As always, the labor movement makes disaster response a high priority in our operations. We hope the wait for such activity is very, very long, but we must always be prepared.

These volunteer departments are the 3-N-1 Volunteer Fire Department in Smithville, the Five Points department in Bastrop, the Bluebonnet department in Cedar Creek, the Bastrop department, the Elgin department, the Smithville department, the Heart of the Pines department in Smithville, the McDade department and the Paige department.