Welcome Home to Volunteers Who Responded to Canada Wildfires

The American Red Cross welcomes home the disaster workers who recently returned from Canada where they supported a massive sheltering operation in response to the numerous wildfires there.

Canada is seeing its worst wildfire season in 30 years with the province of Manitoba the most impacted. As many as 165 fires are still burning in the province, forcing as many as 14,000 people to evacuate.

The Canadian Red Cross has launched a massive relief effort in response to the fires and the American Red Cross deployed more than 115 trained disaster volunteers to help. The U.S. volunteers joined more than 800 volunteers from the Canadian Red Cross to support sheltering for thousands of people who had evacuated to Winnipeg – Manitoba’s capital and largest city.

Volunteers traveled from across the U.S. to support the mega-shelter established in Winnipeg to house hundreds of people displaced by the fires.

Among them was Patrick Cheah, a resident of New Jersey and a member of the International Deployment Roster with the American Red Cross. Not only did he travel over 1,000 miles to reach his deployment, but he also celebrated his birthday in the shelter in Winnipeg.

Hailing from the other side of the country, Vince Ford deployed from Los Angeles to support the operation as a shelter supervisor. He highlighted the extensive training the shelter team received as they prepared to host a large number of displaced indigenous First Nation families. “Having a detailed orientation really helped us understand who we were there to support,” Vince said. “It was one of the most complete briefings I’ve had on a deployment.”

Megan Harris deployed from Utah just one year into volunteering with the Red Cross. She described her role in the shelter as helping supervise and care for the children, including managing the coloring area. A moment that moved her was when a child drew a picture of the fire they had witnessed firsthand. She recognized how much everyone she met had been affected. “All you can do is create a space that is pleasant. It’s all about presence.”

WILDFIRE RESPONSE Under its second provincewide state of emergency, Manitoba has experienced the extreme effects of the fires with significant concerns about air quality prompting public health advisories – especially for pregnant women, children and the elderly – who are advised to limit outdoor activities.

The Canadian Red Cross (CRC) is actively coordinating with local authorities, the Government of Manitoba and Indigenous Services Canada to provide emergency assistance. In Manitoba, the CRC and partners have coordinated transportation for the impacted communities, scheduling flights and buses to support the evacuations. The CRC is also providing emergency support services including registration, reception and information, emergency accommodations, meals, relief supplies and other personal services such as health and mental health support.

As of August 6, 2025, the Canadian Red Cross has:

• Registered more than 31,000 people from over 12,000 households evacuated due to the wildfires in Manitoba. This includes people from more than 7,000 households on behalf of Indigenous Services Canada, and more than 5,000 households on behalf of the Province of Manitoba.
• Secured more than 2,500 hotel rooms for evacuees in Manitoba.
• Provided health-related support to more than 1,600 people who had been evacuated, including health referrals and transport to medical appointments.
• Operated three congregate shelters in Winnipeg.
• Deployed outreach teams to provide registration, information and well-being support to those staying in communities without a reception center.
• Provided emergency supplies such as cots, blankets, and generators, for an additional 12 shelter sites in First Nation and non-First Nation communities in Manitoba, as well as assisting the province with shelters they opened.
• Provided urgent supplies for communities that remain in place, such as food, air purifiers and other requested equipment.

HISTORY OF MUTUAL SUPPORT As part of the global Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, national societies often support disaster response in neighboring countries. The American and Canadian Red Cross have a long history of this kind of collaboration, including sending volunteers to support sheltering and other disaster response work.

In recent years, 56 Canadian Red Cross volunteers have deployed to disasters across the United States. In 2016, the American Red Cross supported relief efforts when a wildfire in Alberta, Canada, forced more than 88,000 residents of Fort McMurray and surrounding areas to leave their homes in search of safety.

The American and Canadian Red Cross are two of the 191 Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that make up the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the world’s largest humanitarian network. Often referred to as National Societies, their roles differ country by country, but they are all united by our Fundamental Principles and all strive for the good of humanity.