Recently I was deployed by the Salvation Army to “work the fire” that broke out in an apartment building just off Capitol Square. What that meant was that I donned a logo golf shirt, threw magnetic signs on my car that would get me past police roadblocks, and met the SA Emergency Services canteen truck on-site to feed 80 exhausted fire and police officers. On this day, at that public disaster, Marta Budworth and I handled “the callout.”
We didn’t know exactly what we would do (each disaster is different) or even who would do what, since we hadn’t worked a disaster together before. I am the exiting interim (volunteer) Emergency Disaster Services director, and she’s the incoming (paid staff) director, and we’re right in the middle of her initial training. But she’s employed full time as a firefighter (Truax) and she’s trained in EMS, etc., so I had a lot of faith in her disaster management skills. And rightly so.
It all starts with teamwork between agencies
The Red Cross was already on the scene, as its first priority is victims, and so it is often a first responder. It had sheltered those displaced by the fire, in the immediate aftermath, at the Salvation Army (they would later be moved to hotels).
Our EDS team’
s function is not for civilians (though we feed/hydrate volunteers and will do victim assistance if requested by the Red Cross). Likewise, Red Cross responsibilities are limited to victims. We are the two agencies that
has built in to a national, state, and local disaster-response plan. We have no authority over each other, only respect for our status as colleagues. We are individually called in by the county’s emergency disaster manager, a 9-1-1 operator, or a requesting police/fire chief. But then we often work together, on-site, in ways to best serve both the public and the situation.
On this day, Red Cross personnel were ready to leave about the time we arrived mid-morning, as they had handled their portion of the callout, but they had extra water and had been hydrating the officers prior to our arrival. They bequeathed the extra water to us, which was great and much appreciated, and we put it on our canteen and out in our ice coolers. Likewise, they had ordered Culver’s hamburgers, and they gave those to us to use for the fire/police officers, and that was a hit. It’s teamwork and generosity like this, between agencies, that make disaster responses work.
We also brought food – meals and rolls and snacks, which were served up with the cheeseburger side. Actually, on this day, we called for it from our kitchen staff at the shelter location, and they brought it on-site, since we’d had the canteen driven to the site by other SA staffers to improve our response time by about half an hour. Poor Marta was called in after working a 48-hour shift for her fire department, and I was called away from scheduled meetings at IB. It took a few minutes for both of us to reground ourselves and start issuing support requests, and we bought time by having the canteen delivered to the site for us, and then meeting it there, ready to go.
What’s involved in volunteering to work fires or other disasters?
The Salvation Army is seeking volunteers for the EDS program, and the need for help is real and urgent. In turn for hours served feeding, hydrating, and assisting police and fire personnel (or other first responders), the Salvation Army provides ongoing training. Volunteers also typically spend a couple hours a month going over the response vehicle, participating in mock disasters, and doing meet-and-greets with area firefighters, etc.
Our neighboring unit, in Sauk County, has a squad that has been together, on average, over 10 years. We’d like to build a program in Dane County that inspires that kind of loyalty, too, and develop volunteers who want to work locally only, as well as volunteers trained to respond to national disasters.
What difference can a mobile feeding canteen make?
You won’t believe how powerful a difference you make when you work a disaster. At the fire, the owner of the burning building came to our unit with an emotional thank-you for the work we were doing to help support the firefighters and police officers who responded to his call. A unit like ours can help prevent the need for multiple fire department involvement, if we can keep personnel hydrated and fed long enough for them to continue their work. It’s tax-dollar effective, since the money for our unit comes from public donations specifically earmarked for helping the responders who are helping their neighbors in need during disasters.
What is the potential for this unit?
This Salvation Army unit, when under the direction of a former director (Barbara Row, my own role model and hero), responded to Katrina. She was at the Stoughton Tornado site for weeks. She and her band of volunteers worked the Gray’s Lake floods, the St. Louis power outage, and other national and area disasters. And yes, our unit was at Ground Zero in New York. The unit has assisted the DA during body searches, sheltered (with tents)
volunteers searching for victims of boating disasters, participated in countywide emergency planning and drills, responded to police stand-offs with subjects holding hostages, etc. In addition, it has, from a secret location, fed and “snacked” over 400 police officers working the Halloween Freakfest activities. We’ve ridden in parades, participated in local festivals, and just generally been available as needed.
Then there was a brief lull to refit the truck, to build a new garage and move all of the supplies, and to reformat our recruitment and training program, which I’ve been involved in as an interim director. And now, handing over the reins to incoming Marta, we’re ready to roll and to recruit in the business community, as well as the retired community, for assistance. Folks are needed to (1) do inventory of the supplies; (2) restock the vehicle before/after emergency calls; (3) clean the vehicle on a weekend, with friends or with a team we might assemble; and (4) go out on the calls as a (a) driver, (b) runner (person who goes for additional supplies if necessary), and (c) server. Marta could use office help and there’s a role for anyone with an interest in the program.
To connect with Marta, email me with “EDS” in the subject line and I’ll forward it to her. Right now, she’s not in her office very often as she’s at the canteen site, working to get to know other agency leaders, and participating in training. But soon (VERY soon), she’s going to turn her attention to recruiting and training her own volunteer staff, and she’s really going to need your help.
I hope to see you on a future call. If you join us, I can promise a perspective-changing experience when you go on your first call, and how many volunteer experiences can offer that?
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