By: Ruby Ramirez

In a typical year across the U.S., home fires are responsible for more deaths than natural disasters combined. Here in Georgia, home fires accounted for 92% of the emergencies the Red Cross responded to locally in 2020, and tragically, fire officials report that 96 individuals lost their lives due to home fires across the state. 

Following the devastation of a home fire fatality and the immediate assistance provided by disaster responders, Georgia’s Red Cross relies on its volunteer Integrated Care Condolence Team (ICCT) to help surviving family members with recovery planning, disaster spiritual care, disaster mental health, and disaster health services. The team works together to meet needs for emotional and spiritual support, psychological first aid, health resources, referrals to community assistance and, if needed, burial assistance for families coping with losing a loved one.

The Red Cross ICCT includes local volunteers like Dave Hendrix, who served as a Lutheran Pastor for 36 years and hospital chaplain prior to becoming a Red Cross volunteer nearly 10 years ago. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, trained professionals like Dave remain on call around the clock, ready to assist families with the trauma of losing a loved one.

Last fall, Dave received one of his most challenging referrals since becoming a Red Cross volunteer. The call came in around 3:30 a.m. from a fellow volunteer at the scene of a deadly home fire. A woman was able to escape, with her dog, a fire that swept through her home, thinking her husband was right behind her, only to realize he didn’t make it out.

She was extremely hysterical,” he recalls. “What she needed most was someone to feel her grief and listen to her in that moment.” Dave describes this as the ministry of presence, “It’s being there with a person, sharing their feelings and letting them know that you’re there for them and that you care,” he says.

After a 45-minute conversation, he was able to calm some of the woman’s distress. Following the call and the traumatic event, he and other Red Cross Disaster Action Team members were on hand to help her take her first steps toward recovery.  

When a fatality occurs, the ICCT comes together to offer a greater level of support, not only spiritually and emotionally but also to ensure families are connected to the community. “We let them know they’re not alone,” says member Lamar Barber, who serves as a Lead Disaster Mental Health Volunteer. He helps to counsel and assess the needs of people who are devasted, grieving and scared following a home fire death.

As a 10-year volunteer veteran, Lamar says he’s able to provide people in need of help with services beyond  what he can do in a professional counseling role.

“They’re trying to plan funerals, trying to figure out where they’re going to live,” said Lamar. People are just lost,” he says.

Lamar and the team come together to help families gather a sense of direction, connecting them to their community and assisting them with funeral planning. They help families go from a sense of shock and isolation to a place where they feel the support of others.

“When death is involved, that’s when we really have to step up,” he says.

With the help of caring volunteers like Dave Hendrix and Lamar Barber, Georgia’s Red Cross provided help to close to 50 disaster-stricken families who lost a loved one last year. Across the country, trained American Red Cross disaster mental health and spiritual care volunteers had more than 53,000 conversations to provide emotional support to people in need of help in 2020.