By Gordon Williams  

Face it, some competitions just aren't worth winning. Case in point is the number of home fire responses among the 10 regions in four states that make up the American Red Cross Pacific Division.

While the Division includes such population centers as Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Portland, it was the Northwest Region (Washington and Northern Idaho) that led in Fiscal 2024 responses to fires in the home. 

That's an important statistic since home fires kill more Americans each year than all other natural disasters combined. And while Red Cross disaster response teams respond to storms, floods, earthquakes and landslides, they most often respond to home fires. In all, Red Cross Disaster Action Teams (DAT) nationwide respond to disasters about 60,000 times a year. Around 5,000 of those responses each year are in the Pacific Division.  

In the Northwest Region, DAT teams left their homes — often at night — and brought relief to victims of a home fire 1,028 times in FY24.

That’s a lot of pressure on Red Cross workers and resources: volunteers who must be recruited and trained, and millions of dollars that must be raised to support disaster relief efforts. And while home fires are tops among Red Cross responses, they are far from the only disasters DAT teams respond to.  

So why does the Northwest region have so many home fires? Jen Carkner, regional disaster response officer, has some ideas.

The region doesn’t have a population center to rival Los Angeles, but it does have its share of biggish cities: Seattle, Spokane, Yakima, the Tri-Cities and Tacoma. Put them together and you will have lots of homes.

The climate, dry and windy much of the year, with vast areas for forest and brush is ripe for the spread of fires. Climate change is making things drier and windier than usual and adds to the fire risk that can impact homes.

Finally, says Carkner, there is what is known as the Wildlands Urban Interface (WUI) — where wildlands touch development. Any dwelling along this line is at increased risk of a home fire. Largely because of the way Washington state was developed, we have a lot of homes at risk.  

No matter the reason, the region’s many home fires must all be responded to. For Carkner and her team, that means recruiting and training local volunteer responders throughout the region is a full-time job. 

One obvious response to the epidemic of regional home fires is to put a premium on training people in home fire prevention.  

Red Cross teams fan out periodically to install smoke alarms in homes that don't have them, and to provide homeowners with lessons in fire prevention. Training people to keep home heating systems in good working order is important to avoid fires. For instance, using an up-to-date home space heater that turns off automatically when tipped over is a vital safety tool. 

Equally important is checking for cracked electrical outlets and frayed wires. Something as simple as extinguishing all candles and fireplace fires before leaving a room is crucial to home fire safety. And, of course, never smoke in bed and never leave a burning candle ablaze when no one is nearby to keep watch.  

As we head into the season of home heating, holiday decorating and home fire risk, let’s follow these rules and focus on significantly reducing the number of fires we must respond to as a region.