By Federic Klein/American Red Cross

A white van bearing an American Red Cross logo trundles slowly down the street in Sierra Madre, California. A voice calls out to a woman walking her dog, asking if she needs any help or emergency supplies.

After the Eaton wildfire came within a mile of the idyllic neighborhood, nestled below the San Gabriel Mountains, residents were cleaning up the soot and ash after they returned from a mandatory evacuation. Those with a home left to clean counted their blessings as a patchwork of charred debris piles illustrated just how close an errant, windblown ember came to destroying a lifetime of memories.

The voice from the van belonged to Alexis Helgeson, a lifelong resident of Sierra Madre, who joined the Red Cross as a volunteer just three months before two massive wildfires destroyed more than 16,000 structures in southern California. She was volunteering her time in between rounds of cleaning ash from her own home where she lives with her parents, John and Patty, and younger siblings, Aspen and Aidan.

The spirit of volunteerism is ingrained in the Helgeson family. John was part of the Red Cross Student Leadership Council when he attended Pasadena High School as a teenager and then deployed to help the Red Cross response after the Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Bay Area in 1989. Patty and Aspen are Type O blood donors with the Red Cross. As kids, the siblings helped pack sack lunches for a local homeless services provider.

“That’s part of what we talked about from when our kids were little, this idea of serving,” said Patty. “We were always giving back to the community in ways that we could, because you never know when it’s going to be you.”

TIME TO GO

As lifelong residents of California, the Helgeson family knows well about the risk they face from wildfires. The Helgeson family has been ready to evacuate before, and the family has put together memory boxes for each of them ready to go at a moment’s notice in case of an emergency. They’ve put thought into their go-bags, one of which is a purple hardshell suitcase that contains all their important documents along with sentimental things that cannot be replaced – like signed baseballs, letters from grandparents, favorite recipes, and a hard drive with family photos.

Some of their neighbors closer to the mountains have had to evacuate in recent years, but in the 34 years that the Helgesons have lived in Sierra Madre, they themselves had never needed to evacuate – until January 7, 2025.

The speed at which the fire spread was what caused the family to take notice. Helicopters are not an uncommon sight over the San Gabriel Mountains, often dispatched to look for lost hikers or to track bears. Less than five minutes after John first noticed the helicopter hovering over the mountains, a visible glow was emanating from the hills. He went inside to get his binoculars, and by the time he got back – he could see the tips of flames.

“The speed with which that developed, in the context of the winds, told me this is going to be a problem,” said John. “I stuck my head in the back room, and I said to the kids, ‘you need to pack.’ I’ve never said anything like that, there’s never been a reason to say anything like that. In three hours from that, we were leaving.”

John turned off the burner where he had been cooking ravioli, the three siblings decided at the last minute to grab their matching Haunted Mansion Tommy Bahama shirts, and the family got in their car and evacuated. For three days, they stayed in a hotel and kept tabs on their home through media reports and a friend who lived outside of the evacuation area. Although their home survived, many neighbors in Sierra Madre and nearby Altadena, where John grew up, were not as fortunate.

ASH IS EVERYWHERE

When the Helgesons returned home, their house was filled with ash and a foul, chemical smell permeated the air. They got to work cleaning up as best they could.

“Even in our house, the air quality was bad,” said Patty. “Ash upon ash, upon ash, upon ash. It’s insidious. But I’d rather have that because I had something to clean. A lot of people couldn’t say that.”

The church across the street from where John grew up had burned down, as did his elementary school. The school where Alexis attended first grade and where John had also attended as a child was gone. But hope still shone through as John made his way through the area he had long loved. The restaurant where John and Patty had their first date in 1991 had made it through the fire.

IT USED TO BE GREENER

Wildfires are not new for the Helgeson family or for anybody who has lived in California, but it is clear that something has changed in recent years.

“The hills are more dry,” said Patty. “It used to be you’d have a little bit of a green season on the mountains. You see more wildlife, particularly here in Sierra Madre, that come down off the mountain looking for food, looking for water. They’re more in the community.”

“There was a local TV station that interviewed one of our neighbors because they had a bear living in their basement,” added Alexis. “Just like, set up shop there. A 400-pound black bear. You wouldn’t have seen that five years ago.”

Due to the climate crisis, the Red Cross is responding to nearly twice as many disasters as compared to a decade ago. Over the past ten years the average number of billion-dollar disasters has nearly doubled – with the 27 such disasters recorded in 2024 topped only by the 28 recorded in 2023.

“Now we have this purple suitcase,” added Alexis. “We just don’t unpack that bag. And that’s new.” 

Red Cross volunteers are at the heart of our mission and represent 90% of our workforce. Visit redcross.org/volunteertoday to sign up for opportunities with your local chapter. 

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.