By Diane St. Denis, Disaster Response Operation Director

On September 25, 2025, the Silicon Valley Red Cross Disaster Action Team responded to a 22-unit apartment fire in San José that displaced more than 70 residents. American Red Cross volunteers arrived on the scene to comfort affected residents, while other Red Cross volunteers, in cooperation with the City of San José, opened a shelter at Camden Community Center, offering families a safe place to rest, have warm meals and snacks and most importantly, connections to Red Cross services to support their recovery journey. 

The incredible volunteer team assembled a shelter within hours on Thursday night and kept the shelter open 24 hours a day for a week. They served 33 people, including a number of elderly folks and families with small children.  

The shelter was fully equipped with a dormitory for sleeping, a medical area, cafeteria, and a kennel for pets. The shelter also offered a Red Cross service center for eligible residents to access disaster recovery planning and financial assistance.  

We had quite a few first-time shelter workers and service center intake workers. Our experienced volunteers took the time to do training in the form of simulations and workshops when there was some downtime. We discovered a volunteer who was interested in doing feeding and has since agreed to be our feeding co-lead! We also had several of our newest Community Disaster Program Managers come to the shelter on the first day to work a shift and see how things operate. 

It was a very positive experience all around. This couldn’t have happened without the excellent turnout of our volunteer force, which saw 30 volunteers staffing the shelter!