By Rebecca Marshall, Red Cross Communications Director

Volunteers and staff from the Red Cross Cascades Region are heading to Los Angeles to help those affected by the deadly wildfires, including volunteers Darrell Fuller and CEO Priscilla Fuentes. They flew out of PDX to Los Angeles two days after these deadly fires broke out.

Fuller, who is a seven-year Red Cross volunteer who lost his own home to fire in 2007. He says our goal is always to make sure people don’t feel alone during this tough time;
“From the time people get to our shelter to the time they discover if their home was destroyed or saved, from the time they learn if a loved one or friend or pet didn’t survive the disaster, we are there for them.”

Fuentes, who still has family in the Los Angeles region says, “Being able to help our communities when people are devastated and don’t know where to go, even if it’s just one person, that’s why I love this work.”

Julia Bishop is a long-time Red Cross volunteer who has deployed over 70 times to disasters both locally and across the country.  She is currently in LA, helping with the distribution of emergency supplies.  When we asked her the exact number of times she’s deployed, she responded, “I don’t know, I’ve lost count.”  

Her commitment to helping people after a disaster is just one example of the volunteer workforce that’s always ready to answer the call.

There are currently hundreds of volunteers in the LA Region supporting the thousands of evacuees.  The Cascades Region alone has sent 18 volunteers with more on standby. 

Fuller hit the ground running in Los Angeles after getting a birds eye view of the widspread disaster from the seat of his plane.

“The volunteers in Los Angeles are on pins and needles because they know more strong Santa Ana winds are on the way and the fires are still burning. That means more neighborhoods could be evacuated. Still, there are moments to celebrate like on Saturday when some of our shelter clients learned their house was still standing and evacuations had been lifted in their neighborhood,” says Fuller.

For several days, Red Cross workers have been providing shelter, food, reunification, health and mental health support for evacuees.  They’ll also do damage assessment on the homes in the affected neighborhoods. Caseworkers and resident transition teams are also there to help homeowners or renters with their next steps.

This is a huge undertaking, and everyone involves knows that it could take months for these folks to recover. Through the emotional ups and downs, they’ll be there.
You can help support our work by going to RedCross.org, by calling 1-800-RedCross (1-800-733-2767), or by texting “REDCROSS” to 90999.