Volunteers with the Disaster Action Team are assisting those impacted by home fires locally.

In the past week, Red Cross volunteers responded to three home fires in Arcola, Decatur and Marshall. From Monday, October 26 to today, the Red Cross has helped eight adults and one child with temporary emergency lodging, health, financial assistance and recovery planning.

If you need assistance after a home fire or disaster, please call our dispatch line: 1-877-597-0747. You can take two easy steps to protect your home and loved ones from a fire: Get a smoke alarm and create a fire escape plan. Having a working smoke alarm cuts the risk of dying in a home fire in half.  You can also find out more information about home fire safety by visiting, redcross.org/fire.

Emergencies Don’t Stop! Volunteers Still Needed
More than 8,000 volunteers including over 100 from the Illinois region have worked tirelessly to assist thousands of people impacted by back to back hurricanes in the South and wildfires in the West. Less than a week ago, Hurricane Zeta made landfall as a strong category 2 storm impacting Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and North Florida with high storm surge and destructive winds. The Red Cross is there to help these communities impacted by disasters in their recovery.

 If you’d like to join our team of dedicated volunteers, please visit redcross.org/volunteertoday to find out more about opportunities, including the most-needed positions: 

• Shelter Service – These volunteers help support emergency shelters by staffing different areas including reception, registration, feeding, dormitory, information collection and other vital tasks. We have both associate and supervisory level opportunities available. 
  
•   Disaster Health Services - We need volunteers who can work in emergency shelters to help assess people’s health and provide hands-on care in alignment with their professional licensure (RN and LPN/LVN). We also need volunteers who can provide care as delegated by a licensed nurse in shelters; this could include assisting with activities of daily living, personal assistance services, providing health education and helping to replace medications, durable medical equipment or consumable medical supplies. 
• Blood Donor Ambassador - These volunteers welcome visitors to Red Cross facilities or blood drives and take their temperature before they enter. Visitors could include potential blood donors, people seeking help, course participants, and Red Cross employees and volunteers. 

You can also find virtual volunteer opportunities at redcross.org/volunteertoday. 

These are other ways that you can support those impacted by disasters:

• Make a Donation at redcross.org, calling 800-RED-CROSS or texting the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Your gift enables the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small.  
  
•  Donate Blood please schedule an appointment to donate by using the Red Cross Blood Donor app, visiting RedCrossBlood.org or calling 800-RED-CROSS.   

About the American Red Cross of Illinois
The American Red Cross of Illinois serves 12.4 million people in 88 counties in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri including Adams, Bond, Boone, Brown, Bureau, Carroll, Cass, Champaign, Christian, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Cook, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, DeKalb, De Witt, Douglas, DuPage, Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Franklin, Fulton, Green, Grundy, Hamilton, Hancock, Henderson, Henry, Iroquois, Jasper, Jefferson, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Knox, LaSalle, Lake, Lee, Livingston, Logan, Macon, Macoupin, Marion, Marshall, Mason, McDonough, McHenry, McLean, Menard, Mercer, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Ogle, Peoria, Perry, Piatt, Pike, Putnam, Richland, Rock Island, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Shelby, Stark, Stephenson, Tazewell, Vermillion, Warren, Washington, Whiteside, Will, Williamson Winnebago, Woodford. Iowa: Lee, Muscatine, Scott and Van Buren. Missouri: Clark, Lewis, Marion and Ralls. The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit us at Redcross.org/Illinois or visit us on Twitter @RedCrossIL.