PORT ST. LUCIE — Although less than 100 homes were destroyed or suffered significant damage in last April’s wildfire here, many families are dealing with fear caused by the near miss, said the Rev. Thomas Derrough, pastor of First United Methodist Church, Port St. Lucie.

To help residents deal with that fear and emotional fallout from the fires, the church is offering pastoral counseling and referral services to the community and has contacted the families whose homes were damaged or destroyed. Two of those families were church members.

The wildfires were close enough to between 5,000 and 7,000 homes for residents to be frightened by them, Derrough said, and for a week after the fire he saw evidence of that fear. "Many people were driving around town with their cars packed with the things they wanted to take with them, just in case," he said.

At a worship service following the fire, church members prayed for those affected by the April 15 disaster and expressed fears about the possibility of more fires.

Those fears are well-founded, according to the Florida Division of Forestry’s Forest Protection Bureau, which publishes quarterly wildfire forecasts. "There is a strong potential for above normal wildfire activity during the March-May period," the bureau’s web site said.

According to a release from the State of Florida Emergency Operations Center, 2,963 fires have burned 248,990 acres since the beginning of the year, damaging or destroying 149 homes. The center says more than 1,000 homes have been saved by firefighters’ efforts.

To help people whose homes have been damaged or destroyed, the church started a fund for wildfire relief and currently has nearly $10,000 "to be disbursed as needs are made known to us," Derrough said. The money came from a special church offering and gifts donated by other United Methodist churches.

Although nobody has requested help, Derrough says the recovery phase of the fires is just beginning. The church and other groups working through Volunteer Organizations Assisting in Disaster (VOAD) are organizing the long-term response, including casework and funding. "The response phase is usually the first 10 days after the disaster," he said. "The recovery phase can go on for a year."

Derrough said he expects to start seeing physical and emotional needs surface in the next six months after people receive settlements from insurance and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That’s when they discover the gaps in their coverage and experience unforeseen problems.