Our History

Burner Disaster Response (BDR) began in the aftermath of the horrible devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in September of 2024. Our founder, Fixxer (Andy Owens), started and ran a large Burning Man food and music camp, called Rootpile, in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Over the course of 10+ years running Rootpile, it became one of the most self-sufficient and self-contained large camps at the event. When faced with the devastation to Fixxer's (and Rootpile's) Appalachian Mountain homeland, Fixxer began to consider that his time, knowledge, skills, and resources could be used to provide responses to the regional disaster. It became clear to Fixxer that the infrastructure belonging to Rootpile could better be used to support his local efforts, rather than just providing a Bluegrass music outpost at a once-a-year, one-week event attended mainly by well-off event goers.

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Therefore, Fixxer immediately began utilizing his North Carolina locally-stored heavy equipment to assist, as much as possible, in the Hurricane Helene rebuilding and relief efforts, which will no-doubt be necessary for years to come.

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While we initially began our organization's efforts on Hurricane Helene damage, we plan to grow Burner Disaster Response into a force which can be deployed for other disasters, as well, following in the footsteps of Burners without Borders, another Burning Man community aid program.

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