Big Island Red Cross volunteers assisting California fire victims

Big Island American Red Cross volunteers are deploying to California to assist victims of multiple ongoing wildfires that have scorched hundreds of thousands of acres, destroyed 2,000 structures and forced thousands to evacuate.

American Red Cross Pacific Island Region Hawaii County Director Marty Moran said Sunday as Hurricane Ida lashed Louisiana that the nonprofit is deploying volunteers to California, where assistance is needed for those impacted by the more than dozen fires burning across the Golden State.

“I already have a nurse and one sheltering person in California now from Hawaii Island and I will be deploying myself (Monday morning) and there are several others in the queue to be deployed to assist in California,” said Moran.

Big Island volunteers are not headed to assist in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida because of the number of natural disasters currently taking place, he said.

“Because of the major forest fires we have going at this time, we are what is called ‘fenced,’ so we are not deploying anybody outside of our division to another division,” Moran said. “Now, all of the other division in the United States are supplying people to Louisiana; and some of them are being sent west, if we can’t fill out our division.”

Moran estimated about a half-dozen volunteers from the Big Island would be sent to the fires. He indicated reinforcements could be needed in the near future.

“They come here we go there so that’s exactly what it will be so it’s our time for payback,” Moran said.

“It looks like we are in a good place because for the next two weeks we don’t have anything on the horizon as far as tropical storms.”