When Lorie and Bob Gibbs and their two sons, Ethan and Aiden, evacuated their home off South Henefer Road Monday morning, they needed somewhere to regroup.
The last 48 hours were stressful. There was news of their generational family land near Henefer burning in the Rocky Canyon Fire’s push, and the smoke column became more and more ominous from their home as the hours went by.
They were told that a temporary shelter for evacuees was available at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse in Coalville, and agreed to start there.
“(We decided to) come here and settle in and wait for the meeting that was just down the road at the school, so it was kind of a no-brainer,” Bob said. “(It gave us) some time to sit down and just regroup and find a room. Best Western’s doing evacuee discounts, a room for $80, so that’s awesome. So being able to come here was tremendous.”
Lorie said the shelter is one of the blessings she’s seen amid the stress, as well as the fact that firefighters saved her sister’s cabin on their family’s land. One of the shelter’s volunteers is a woman they know from the school, Lorie said, who has been a familiar face for their son who has ADHD and autism.
“It’s been very good to just have that support from the people in our community. And she’s been very good with him, knew him before, and so she’s been there to talk to him and play with him,” Lorie said.
It’s families like the Gibbs that make up “clients” of Red Cross shelters, temporary relief from disasters like wildfires across the world, said Red Cross volunteer Stan Mathews.
Mathews was one of six from the national nonprofit helping organize the shelter in Coalville, with another eight or so local volunteers. The Red Cross crew was easily identifiable in red cargo vests with the iconic red “+” sign printed on the front and back.
Some volunteers from the Ogden branch helped at the first shelter location outside of Morgan during the first wave of evacuations after the Rocky Canyon Fire was discovered on Friday. But as the fire moved into Summit County on Sunday, volunteers from the Greater Salt Lake branch were called in to help out at the new shelter in Coalville.
“We work very closely with the local emergency management groups, and we actually wait until they let us know: Is there a need for shelter? Is there a need for just an evac center for them to come and cool off or whatever?” Mathews said.
Cots, blankets, pillows and personal care kits with toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap are provided for free. Each shelter brings a trailer equipped to handle a 50-person shelter overnight and considers logistical needs like pantry kits for kitchens and utility kits with tools and supplies.
So far, the Red Cross hasn’t needed to set up for overnight stays during the Rocky Canyon Fire because evacuees have been able to stay with friends and family or at hotels. But Mathews has been on assignments, like the entire 600-person town of Eureka evacuating during the Iron Fire, where the shelter has been maxed out.
In Summit County, the volunteers said they’ll continue to be available for those who don’t have the connections or resources to rely on, even if that means they just help one person.
“I think people are a little shy about having to come stay in a Red Cross shelter,” Mathews said. “It’s usually kind of an economic thing. If there are people on the low spectrum that really don’t have a place to go or stay, then they’ll come to a Red Cross shelter, and then they quickly learn that ‘Hey, we get three meals a day coming here.’”
The meals provided are sometimes donated by local community groups, or they’re sourced from restaurant partners like Chick-fil-A and Cracker Barrel.
“Almost everything they serve is homemade. It’s all from scratch. Nothing comes in pre-frozen,” Mathews said about Cracker Barrel. “They can put out a lot of meals for the Red Cross.”
The meals and snacks are a huge benefit, especially for some clients. In Utah, not so much, but Mathews said he’s volunteered in places where people hoard the food provided because they don’t know when their next meal will be.
“There really is food insecurity among a lot of populations. When you run a shelter, you see it big time,” he said.
But they never judge and never turn anyone away, though the shelter is intended solely for those affected by a disaster.
The American Red Cross was founded in 1881 by Clara Barton, and its first disaster relief effort was for forest fires in Michigan. Since then, Red Cross volunteers have aided in historic disasters over its 145-year history, including the Spanish-American War, 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco, survivors of the Titanic, World War I, World War II and the attacks on Pearl Harbor, among many more global incidents. Ninety-percent of Red Cross efforts are managed through volunteers, Mathews said.
“The Red Cross motto is that we alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies through donations and volunteers,” Mathews said.
Part of that service includes showing respect and dignity to people affected by disasters like fires.
“We don’t call them victims. You don’t ever call people victims of something. They’re clients,” Mathews said.
They also don’t ever allow the media inside to film, take pictures or bother the clients, he said.
“If they can’t trust us with that confidentiality, it kind of destroys our whole purpose,” he said. “It’s a No. 1 rule: Honor their privacy.”
Mathews is “supposed to be retired” after a 37-year career with Boeing, but this volunteer work has quickly become full time over the past two years, he joked.
“A couple years ago, a couple neighbors were working with the Red Cross. My wife kept saying, ‘You need to go sign up with the Red Cross. You don’t have anything to do,’” he said.
Since joining, he’s gone all over the state, especially this summer with Utah’s historic fire season, but he’s also gone abroad for the Red Cross, like recent trips to Guam and Saipan to provide relief from typhoons.
“There are so many neat people in the Red Cross. You got to understand the type of people that are willing to give all that time and donate their talents to the Red Cross. There’s just cool people,” Mathews said.
In all his travels, he’s begun to collect Red Cross pins, displayed on his red vest. There’s actually a pin-trading culture within the community, he said, and some of his pins have been gifts from fellow volunteers.
“It’s like being back in Boy Scouts or something,” Mathews said. “It’s nice to be able to give back.”
Details and updates about Red Cross shelters for evacuees from the Rocky Canyon Fire will be provided by Summit County at summitcountyutah.gov/AlertCenter.aspx?AID=Rocky-Canyon-Wildfire-Updates-481&action=showAllUpdates.