While many people connect the American Red Cross to natural disasters and blood drives, residential fires are the most common event they respond to. Between July 1 of 2023 and June 30 of this year, there were 299 house fires in eastern Kentucky. Red Cross officials said during that time, there were only 21 volunteers in the region to respond to them. Stacy Taylor is a Senior Recruitment Specialist with the Red Cross. She said it’s critical that enough people are in place to respond to house fires and other disasters.
“Because again, the need here in eastern Kentucky is dire and we really, really, need the community to come out. It’s something that we need folks to get trained for before the situation happens so that we can respond to it. It’s not something we want to wait until it happens and then try and figure out what we do,” said Taylor.
According to Taylor, Red Cross workers are usually at the scene anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. She said when volunteers get to the house fire, they are first compassionate, listening to victims work through the devastation.
“And then within that, they start asking some questions. Just finding out, do they have a place to stay? Are they on medication? So, we can help them get their medications recovered. Do they need medical devices? Do they have family around that can help them? Is there a church group that can support them? So, we can start connecting the dots,” said Taylor.
Anyone over the age of 18 can become a volunteer. Initial training takes around four hours, followed by a shadowing period. Taylor says Red Cross work is a fulfilling way to give back to the community while helping neighbors who are going through one of the worst events of their lives. More information can be found at redcross.org/volunteer.
The American Red Cross is a recent underwriting partner of WMKY.
