By Rebecca Marshall, Red Cross Communications Director.

The following story is told by a woman whose home was destroyed by a house fire in 2024. She and her family experienced something they never thought they would and the Red Cross showed up to help on one of the worst days of their lives. It’s clear from her story that it’s the little things that mean so much when disaster strikes.

“It was Saturday morning, February 24th, 2024. A typical Saturday for us. Kind of typical. We were out the house early, so I left about 7:30 a.m. I was heading to a volunteer board retreat in Portland, and my husband was taking all three kids to a soccer game up in Vancouver, and all was well and good. I was fully engaged in this retreat for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. We are making vision boards. My phone was put away and I was just totally present in the moment.

A while later, I went to go grab my phone to take some video of what we were doing, and I had about 17 missed text messages, 20 plus missed phone calls.

The one that stands out said: “Meg, pick up your phone. Our house is on fire.” 

I get chills every time I think about it.

I was in shock, complete shock. So, I grabbed my stuff and ran out.  

When I got to the house at about 10:30am, there were about a dozen fire trucks on scene and it looked really bad.  My husband showed up soon thereafter (we had given the kids to my in-laws, so they didn’t have to be present for that). We just started to assess and process the situation.

We believe the fire started in the kitchen just after we left before 8 a.m., so it had been going for several hours. It was crazy.

There were still smoke coming from the house. Structurally, the house is still standing.

It was all internal, 100% damage due to smoke, fire, heat, something that started in the kitchen. And so, I rolled up to a house where smoke is coming out.  All of the windows had been busted out because the fire department wanted to release the smoke inside.

Later, we were allowed to go inside after it was deemed safe.  We dressed in full on hazmat suits and masks, and we went in to see the damage and the total loss.

It’s just in in that instant, that one instant, things just completely changed. Perspectives changed. You reassess what’s important. We lost our family pets, which is the hardest part.  We had we had a variety of pets. We had two dogs, Olive and Callie. My son had a pet bearded dragon named Puff, his emotional support animal. We had a couple fish tanks.

It was also hard thinking about the memorabilia and the nostalgic items, the things from my childhood, the things from my brother who had passed away, my grandma’s China, and other things that were of family importance.  

Somebody asked if we would like the Red Cross to show up and I didn’t even know that that was a thing. I had obviously heard of Red Cross, but I think of them in terms of natural disasters and giving blood and that type of thing.

We had two amazing gentlemen show up, Terry and Steve. And they were just the kindest, most genuine. They were there to support. They had big bags filled with blankets, toothbrushes, shampoo, a whole resource list of people that we could contact for support. They asked if we wanted a monetary contribution to help us get through, and we decided to go with it, which ended up helping cover hotel costs those first couple of nights. It was just a really great experience having people show up and be able to support when you don’t even know what you need.

To have people who volunteer their time to, to support and help you get through these really tough times, it just takes a weight off and lets you know you’re not alone and that there’s support and that it will be okay.

We did need a place to sleep that night. We needed clothing. We needed a toothbrush. We might need financial support. The resource list was something that I didn’t even think I’d ever need, but just being able to provide medical assistance after leaving that situation: How am I going to see without my glasses? How is my child going to get their medication tomorrow?

Having a team that knows what you need when you’re in that lowest point was awesome. And I want to point out just the way they showed up with so much love and so much care, and just true support and hope.

I think sometimes we don’t even know where our money goes when we donate to big organizations and I just want to show it’s real. We do fine as a family normally, but in this disaster, to have some type of support and knowing that there are other people out there that are willing to help when people are at their lowest, means a lot.

I think that it’s comforting to know that there’s good in the world and that there are willing to donate dollars to help when others are in need.

So often, I don’t think I’m going to cry today. I’ve spoken about it enough and then I realize that it still hurts.

After going into the home several times, we did some digging and searching, and found three stuffed animals that were very smoke filled that we have to this day.  It’s the little things.

I was surprised to learn that the Red Cross supports individual families like mine. I thought it was just big natural disasters. And here we are. So, thank you for your support.”

If you ever need help after a house fire or want to help support the Red Cross in its mission, call 1-800-Red Cross or go to RedCross.org.