Nearly 300 metro Atlanta residents were displaced from their homes in a series of unrelated apartment fires in late August, including an overnight blaze at a 20-unit building near College Park that affected more than 30 people.
The latest fire occurred Aug. 25 at the Central Park Apartments in the 2000 block of Camp Creek Parkway, Red Cross regional communication director Sherry Nicholson said. The Red Cross assisted 15 families and a total of 34 people affected by the fire with lodging and other essentials, Nicholson said.
The Central Park Apartments fire came on the heels of another fire in Gwinnett County the previous weekend that displaced 58 people, and the major apartment fire in Buckhead that displaced nearly 200 on Aug. 19.
“It was an all-hands-on-deck event,” said Jim Tudor, a volunteer with the Red Cross Disaster Action Team. Tudor, who has volunteered with the Red Cross since retiring about five years ago, said the Buckhead fire at the Avana on Main was one of the largest single events he had seen. According to the Red Cross, more than 40 volunteers responded to the fire in person and virtually to help. Tudor said he handled eight or 10 cases himself.
When residential fires occur around the metro area, the local Red Cross chapter requests the contact information of the people affected from first responders at the scene. Typically, a volunteer is dispatched to the scene to offer assistance in the form of paid overnight lodging, food, medical support and even emotional support, Tudor said.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed their approach somewhat, leading Red Cross volunteers to first make contact virtually with the displaced people. In the case of the Avana on Main fire that destroyed the homes of more than 180 people, 30 Red Cross volunteers provided virtual assistance from all across the state.
Those displaced by the Buckhead fire were able to shelter at the nearby Passion City Church as Red Cross volunteers worked for more than seven hours to provide assistance to all those who wanted it, Tudor said. Firefighters battled the apartment fire all night, for a total of more than 18 hours, AJC.com previously reported.
Tudor said the pandemic has created some unique challenges in Atlanta, a city which “has a lot of fires,” he added.
“If we have a facility that could house 200 people before the pandemic, now it can only hold about 65,” Tudor said.
With the pandemic in mind, volunteers like Tudor try to respond virtually to disasters when they can, and they follow the acronym CDC (Cover, Distance, Clean) for in-person contact with the displaced people they call clients.
According to Nicholson, the Red Cross in metro Atlanta has about 400 registered disaster volunteers, about 40 of whom are core volunteers who are regular responders.
“When we have extra-busy times like this, they can be stretched thin,” Nicholson said. “That’s why more volunteers are always needed.”
“Fortunately, there haven’t been any injuries,” Tudor said of the recent series of fires, noting that he had responded to 12 fatality fires in his years as a volunteer. He also said that, despite the pandemic, the volunteer mission has not changed and that the same assistance is provided to clients whether volunteers respond in person or by virtual means.
The pandemic still has its drawbacks, though.
“We can’t hug them anymore, and we miss that,” Tudor said of his clients. “But that’s just the world we all live in today.”
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