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Faith Communities Step Up as Red Cross Shelters During Spokane’s Upriver Fire
Churches across Spokane opened their doors, partnered with the Red Cross and provided shelter, resources and support as the fast-moving Upriver Fire forced about 1,500 residents to evacuate.
By Caleb McGever | FāVS News Reporter
SPOKANE, Wash. – The Red Cross started looking for a partner to host an evacuation center June 16, after the Upriver Fire prompted around 1,500 evacuations east of Spokane.
Evacuations for the Upriver Fire began on June 16 and lasted three days. The Department of Natural Resources later said the fire burned 213 acres and destroyed 14 homes. The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said one person may have been killed in the fire.
Glenn Lockwood, a senior volunteer who has worked with Red Cross for over 50 years, said schools, churches and stadiums are some of Red Cross’s most common partners.
“We can’t do what we do in disasters without the help of community partners and among those strongest entities are churches and faith-based organizations that can come and work alongside of us,” Lockwood said.
Kristin Goodwillie, a public information officer for the Red Cross, said Spokane Valley United Methodist Church, one of its longtime partners in the community, said yes to the call “immediately.”
The initial call was received by the church’s chair of trustees, who passed it on to Rev. Allisa Amestoy, the pastor of Spokane Valley United Methodist Church.
Amestoy said “yes” to the request to open a Red Cross shelter at the church and was notified that two Red Cross volunteers would be there in 30 minutes to an hour.
After they arrived and saw the facility, two more volunteers came with a trailer of supplies and setup began, Amestoy said. By the time setup and paperwork was finished, six people had already arrived seeking shelter after leaving the fire.
The initial setup served as an evacuation center to provide people a place to gather their thoughts, eat, charge their phones and use Red Cross resources, Goodwillie said. Later, Red Cross worked with the church to transition it to an overnight shelter.
The whole process, from the initial request to the finished shelter setup, took only a few hours, Goodwillie said.
Fourteen people used the shelter by midnight on Wednesday, she said. Amestoy said the Red Cross closed the shelter on Thursday afternoon and completed the checkout list on Friday.
Other churches responded
Residents of Spokane County were interrupted at 1:07 p.m. on Tuesday by the sound of an alarm from their phones. The alarm beared an alert with the message, “Level 3 Evacuation, Leave NOW!”
Over the next four hours, evacuation alerts warned people about the danger of the Upriver Fire. The evacuation area grew over the next few hours as the fire expanded and intensified.
During the evacuations and afterward, at least two other churches made a public effort to assist people affected by the fire.
Less than an hour later after the county alert went out, Millwood Community Presbyterian Church posted on Facebook and on its website, offering assistance.
“Millwood Presbyterian Church is open and available to anyone who needs a safe place to wait, rest or regroup during the Level 3 evacuation,” it said in a popup window on its website on the day of the evacuations.
Two days later, Pasadena Park Church of the Nazarene began a collaboration with Spokane County Fire District 9 to host a “Community Connect Center.”
Fire District 9 said the center would feature assistance, resources and information from state, county and local partners.
Fire season and the need for help
Dry climates and heavy winds that occur between May and October, known as “fire season,” can lead to large and dangerous fires like the Upriver Fire, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
The same week the Upriver Fire started, Red Cross set up evacuation centers at at least two other locations in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho to serve people evacuating from fires.
Near Prosser, it set up a shelter at Prosser High School for people evacuating the 820-acre OIE fire. Near Kellogg, it helped set up a shelter at Real Life Ministries Church for people evacuating the 217-acre Gold Run Fire.
Red Cross volunteer Lockwood said partnering with the nonprofit can take many forms, varying from a partner simply allowing Red Cross to use its facilities to a partner running its own facility using training and resources from Red Cross.
For example, he said, Spokane Valley Methodist Church signed an agreement for Red Cross to use its facilities, while Real Life Ministries asked Red Cross to provide training so it could run the shelter itself.
Both are helpful partnerships for serving the community, he said.
“We both have the same mission: We have the desire to help people who have suffered loss and we want to care for them. The churches would say ‘we want to minister to them,’ it winds up being the same thing in the sense that it’s an opportunity to help people who are in need,” Lockwood said.
Non-partner can still help Red Cross shelters by offering resources the partner may not have, such as use of their kitchen or parking lots, he added.
Lockwood said churches, organizations or individuals looking to partner or volunteer with Red Cross can call 1-800-733-2767 or visit the Red Cross website.
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