South Dakota Credit Union Employees Quickly Act to Help Fire Victims

In just three hours after hearing the devastating news that a fire destroyed an apartment building, employees at Oahe Federal Credit Union in Pierre, S.D., sprang into action to help the estimated two dozen people who lost their homes and possessions.

The fire was reported at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 14. By 8:41 p.m., the $29.9 million Oahe posted a message on its Facebook page to accept any donations to help people who were displaced by the fire.

Even though firefighters spent the rest of that Thursday evening and into Friday morning battling the flames fueled by strong winds and cooling temperatures, the 38-unit apartment building in Pierre was a total loss, according to local media reports.

Fortunately, however, the two dozen residents were safely evacuated.

“When my coworker Jaymason Bramblee and I saw the social media posts about the fire, we knew that we needed to do something to help these families,” Julia Diedrich, assistant manager/loan officer at Oahe, said. “It was just heartbreaking. We quickly put up a post on the credit union’s Facebook page about opening our office for donations for the fire victims.”

Deidrich described the response from the community and the surrounding communities as incredible and amazing.

“By 3 p.m. Friday afternoon we had to stop (accepting) the donations because we ran out of room.” she said. “With the help of staff and family members, we were able to get things sorted so it was easier for families to come down and get items they needed.”

In addition to distributing household and personal items for fire victims, Oahe established an account to accept cash donations.