By: Erin Gartner, Northwest Region

Shifting weather and growing communities mean more wildfires are getting dangerously close to towns and cities across the Pacific Northwest. To keep pace, the American Red Cross is also shifting.

After an exhausting wildfire season last year, Red Cross officials realized they needed more volunteers on standby during the summer months. With 90% of the Red Cross workforce being volunteers, that meant creating a system to better utilize these dedicated volunteers, especially in eastern Washington state and northern Idaho.

The solution: The Summer Readiness Plan, which keeps full teams of Red Cross volunteers on standby throughout the region to respond to wildfires. These teams are ready to deploy, at any time, to set up shelters when a wildfire forces people to evacuate their homes. The teams are in addition to the Red Cross’ “steady state” staff, who work year-round to prepare for disasters.

“I thought we’d have 15 or 20 people sign up,” said Jenny Carkner, the Red Cross Regional Disaster Officer for the Northwest Region. “We had over 200 people. It was a huge response!”

Within weeks of Carkner calling for volunteers, the plan was put to the test.

Summer Standby with the Red Cross

Here’s how it works: A 12-person team is on standby each week during the summer in every larger county across Washington state and northern Idaho. Eight team members are ready to quickly deploy to open, set up and staff evacuation centers in communities where residents have been told to leave their homes. The volunteers can also run overnight shelters if needed.

The other four volunteers are the command team. They coordinate the overall Red Cross response, such as ensuring supplies are available, staff and volunteers are coordinated, and meals or mass care are available. The command team also serves as a liaison between the Red Cross and state and local emergency responders.

“We never know how big a fire will be or when one may happen, but we wanted to get ahead of it,” said Ryan McAllister, who Carkner tapped to develop the plan. A former fire marshal with 15 years in firefighting operations, McAllister is now the Red Cross Disaster Program Manager for the Northwest Washington State Chapter.

The four-member command teams are composed of trained disaster coordinators like Fred Tribble, a longtime Red Cross volunteer. Tribble is also a former Army National Guardsman who has extensive experience in disaster response, including during wildfires, earthquakes and floods.

“I’ve been deep in the woods of emergency management for a long time,” Tribble said with a laugh.

Tribble was on-call and assisted in the inaugural deployment of the Summer Readiness Plan when his team was called to action during the Slide Ranch wildfire. The blaze erupted on June 22 near White Swan, a rural community in south-central Washington state.

The fire eventually destroyed 17 homes, damaged 10 others and burned more than 3,000 acres, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported. Tribble found volunteers to drive over an hour to open a shelter at an elementary school that was a safe distance from the blaze.

About 150 people were ordered to evacuate their homes in the area. The Red Cross set up an evacuation center, and Tribble said about 18 people ended up staying overnight at a shelter.

“Like any disaster, things can be confusing. But we all knew our jobs and everyone worked well together,” Tribble said. “When our regional boss called in, every question he had got a direct answer. A true test of an organization is if your boss walks away happy, then you’re doing well.”

Red Cross taps deep experience among volunteers

Tribble spent over a decade coordinating similar disaster-response efforts with the California Army National Guard, including coordinating helicopters and C130 aircraft to drop water on large wildfires. He has also been a Red Cross volunteer since 1985.

“We have these amazing people who work for us, for free, who are professionals in their own world, and they’re giving us their time,” said Carkner, the Red Cross official overseeing the Summer Readiness Plan. “It’s also fun because we’re seeing some people really shine who’ve been working behind the scenes for a long time.”

Now retired in a small town in eastern Washington, Tribble says he appreciates being able to work with the Red Cross – even though he’s hours away from a major city or Red Cross office. He is the Red Cross Deputy Sheltering Coordinator for Greater Inland Northwest, which covers much of eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle.

Tribble can take on the responsibility thanks to video conferencing and other technology that enables him to maintain ongoing, open channels of communication with everyone involved during a disaster.

“That’s the beauty of telecommunications,” he said. “And of the Red Cross.”

Learn more about volunteering with the American Red Cross.