The Picayune Fire Department held a boot drive at Wal-Mart on Saturday morning from 9 a.m. until noon, as part of a statewide fundraising effort.

Lieutenant Ronnie Reynolds said the state burn center in Greenville had shut down due to lack of funding, and that Saturday’s fundraiser was in an effort to build a new burn center.

Battalion Chief Darren Dennis said the new burn center will be located at the University Medical Center in Jackson.

The firefighters had tables set up at both entrances to Wal-Mart, as well as a fire truck and the fire safety trailer at one end of the building.

Dennis said any children that came by wanting to look at the fire truck were given tours.

“Also, any parents and children wanting to look at the fire truck can come to the fire station any time during the work week and we will show them the trucks. A lot of kids want to see the fire truck and we don’t mind showing it to them,” Dennis said.

Dennis said by phone Tuesday morning that they didn’t know yet how much money they had raised.

“We just have a big bag of one dollar bills,” Dennis said.

A state-wide count of the money raised during the fundraiser probably will not be complete for a couple of weeks, said Amanda Fontaine of the Mississippi Burn Center.