SEARSMONT — Community members displayed an instinctive show of support for the victims of the fire at Robbins Lumber on Friday.

Shortly after word of the fire and subsequent explosion spread online, the Fraternity Village General Store in Searsmont began soliciting donations: food, water and other supplies for first responders and those effected.

The community showed up in force.

“Within the first hour, we had more than a dozen people come with cases of water,” store owner Amanda Boyington said a little after noon.

A steady stream of cars came to leave cases of bottled water, Gatorade and granola bars. Some donated cash. Others stepped up not only to bring the supplies to the store, but to deliver them to first responders at the mill as well. Boyington said people had come from as far north as Bangor to help.

Robbins Lumber is an important part of Searsmont’s economy and community, residents said. It employs more than 200 people in the area and has been a major employer for well over 100 years.

So when Amanda Cook saw reports of explosions at the mill, she knew what she needed to do: She got in her truck and started driving from her job in Belfast.

She called up some friends who run convenience stores between her job in Belfast and the mill in Searsmont. She asked if they would donate water and snacks for the first responders. They all said yes.

“A lot of us have friends and family (at the mill),” Cook said as she offloaded hundreds of bottles of water from the bed of her truck. “And if we don’t, we all know someone who does.”

Within minutes, the bed of her truck was full with bottles of water and Gatorade. When she got to the general store around 2 p.m., she realized she wasn’t alone in wanting to help.

While firefighters and the media staged near the lumberyard, the general store served as a sort of staging area for the public.

About a half-dozen trucks, SUVs and minivans were already in the parking lot, their drivers forming a bucket brigade-style line to convey cases of Gatorade and water from their trunks to the store’s back room.

“This is just small towns coming together,” Cook said. “We take care of each other.”

The general store’s parking lot was full for nearly the entire day. People continued to flock to the general store with supplies well into the evening.

By 6 p.m., a Fraternity Village employee said hundreds of bottles of water, several dozen pizzas and more than $2,000 had been donated by community members across the Midcoast — and even from out of state.

“We live in a world that’s kind of messy at times, but it’s these folks right here that show that we’re still a community,” Cook said. “We make sure everything’s going to be OK at the end of the day.”

Staff Writer Mike Mandell and Staff Photographer Rich Abrahamson contributed to this story.