Franklin County Commissioners Tuesday approved an emergency ordinance to help victims of the Eastpoint wildfire start rebuilding their lives

Franklin County Commissioners Tuesday approved an emergency ordinance to help victims of the Eastpoint wildfire get into temporary homes.

The wildfire tore through a residential area of Eastpoint on June the 24^th destroying 36 homes and severely damaging 5 more.

Officials are still unsure exactly how many people were impacted by the fire – Duke Energy said 40 accounts were affected while the Red Cross said 279 people sought assistance after the fire.

The difficulty is that while 40 homes were damaged or destroyed there were also a number of other building, campers and sheds that had people living in them and they don't count toward the official damage total.

On Tuesday the county commission approved an emergency ordinance to start getting people into temporary housing until a permanent solution is found.

The ordinance allows the county to waive the fees for dumping demolition and construction debris from the affected area at the landfill.

That will make it easier to clear the affected lots.

A number of contractors have agreed to come in to clear the affected lots at no charge to the property owners – that work should begin by the beginning of next week.

It also waives the fees for development and building permits for the affected area so that the county can start moving temporary trailers and connecting them to power poles.

The county is working with the Capital Area Action Agency to procure FEMA trailers that were used in Monroe County during last year's storm season.

Under that agreement the Capital area action agency will buy 24 or 26 trailers to place on the affected lots to start getting people back in homes.

The county is also loosening the rules so that more than one trailer can be put on a residential lot if needed.

They realize there will not be enough trailers for everyone affected, but said this is a first step toward giving people some sense of normalcy.

The hope is that they can start transitioning people to permanent homes within 6 months – though it could take much longer than that.

The emergency ordinance will be in effect for two years.

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