The Red Cross in Eastern New York responded to more than 700 emergences in the region in 2025, including a fatal home fire on Western Ave. in Albany last week that killed two people and displaced 13 others. Local volunteers also responded to disasters across the country, including the typhoon in Alaska last month and the devastating floods in Texas in July. WAMC’s Maryam Ahmad spoke to the regional Red Cross’ CEO Kevin Coffey about the local and national efforts from Red Cross volunteers in 2025, and how families should prepare for the holidays and the winter weather.
Could you tell us a little more detail about what exactly happened in that fire on Western Avenue, and how the Red Cross responded?
When a large fire occurs, we'll get dispatched from emergency management or the fire department, and we respond to take care of the community's immediate needs. In the case of the fire that happened in Western Avenue, we were able to open up a warming reception because it was really cold out that day, and provide a safe space for those clients to visit. We provided meals and immediate support. We also had disaster mental health on scene because it was a fatal home fire and we needed to care for the immediate needs of that community.
What were the major efforts throughout the year from the Red Cross in this region?
The Red Cross responds to disasters big and small every eight minutes. And if we look at this past year, we had the typhoons in Alaska. We had volunteers from this region deploy for three weeks, running shelters and providing support for those community members. Every eight minutes, the Red Cross is called to a disaster. We never know what that's going to be. Often, t's a home fire. But, you know, in the state of New York, we had a tornado that hit outside of the city of Rome, and that's the second year that upstate New York has been impacted by a tornado, and our volunteers were able to open up a shelter and provide immediate support for that community to recover.
What can you tell us about the volunteers themselves?
The volunteers are incredible. They're the lifeblood of this organization. 90% of the work is done through volunteers. Whether they are driving blood from you know, our area hospitals to the testing facility and back into the community, or they're responding at 2 a.m. in the morning to a home fire, or, coordinating any of our marketing materials or fundraising events or supporting efforts at the VA hospital. Volunteers really are the backbone of this organization, and they enable us to empower this humanitarian mission.
Volunteers responded to events outside of just this region as well. What can you tell me about what those events were and what work was being done?
So we train volunteers to respond local to events, but oftentimes, when there's a large-scale disaster, we will deploy volunteers to other parts of the country. There was a flooding event in Kentucky that some of our volunteers were deployed to. I shared earlier that one of our longtime volunteers who first started with us in Hurricane Katrina was actually deployed to Alaska for the typhoon operation. That same volunteer also deployed to Texas when they had the devastating flooding event that took 57 lives, and as a disaster mental health worker, he's trained to really provide comfort and care to those families on their darkest days.
What happens to the people displaced by these events? How does the Red Cross assist them in figuring out a step forward?
So the Red Cross really partners with the community. And if we look at, you know, the challenges with housing, when disasters strike, that is really the biggest need, so providing safe shelter - we will open up shelters or work with community partners to find alternate locations for folks to rebuild their lives. That is something that we typically see in disasters that we’ll have to meet. The immediate need is providing a safe place for folks to live. But then, as a community begins to recover, how can we partner with other [organizations] - a housing authority, or we have a national agreement with Airbnb.
There's a lot of different ways that we've been able to work with communities to help them recover. Right now, in the city of Rome, there was a devastating home fire. We currently have a shelter open. We had an overnight population of eight individuals, and we're going to be working with the community to find new homes for those individuals. We respond to the immediate event, but then our case managers are working alongside those families until they're on the road to recovery.
Back to the Western Avenue incident - what are the next steps for the people impacted by that? You mentioned that there were people who were responding with disaster mental health work. What exactly are the next couple weeks or couple months, going to look like for them?
It’s different for every client. I can't speak to the individual needs of the folks that are impacted for this disaster, but the case managers that will be working with the family. Some of the families were international students, so we've actually connected with the International Federation of Red Cross to see if we can get support with their nation’s societies. And we are really just meeting the immediate needs and providing referral services if they need to go to another organization to get new furniture, or, you know, connecting with the University at Albany for any programs and support that they may offer. It is not just the Red Cross that responds in a disaster. It is really communities coming together, and the Red Cross is all about neighbors helping neighbors.
Were there particular disasters that occurred more this year, or things that were of note and concern to the Red Cross?
I think it's important for the American public to know that we're responding to more disasters than we were 10 years ago. The pace of the disasters that we're seeing, the severity of the storms, coupled with the every-single-day event of a home fire, really requires more people to volunteer. We really need more individuals in the public to see themselves as Red Crossers. Take a training, become certified in CPR and first aid and AED, and really figure out how you can support in times of disasters.
When we look at large scale disasters that impact communities, that respond better and are more resilient, [they] are the communities that are prepared and connected. I think all of your listeners can really take the time, especially around the holiday season, when there's an increase in home fires, [to] really take the steps to figure out how they can be prepared. Test your smoke alarms, make a plan to have an emergency kit in the time of a disaster. But we really need more folks in our community to understand they can take an active role in helping respond to disasters.
On that note, are there particular things that you want people to be aware of during the holidays?
Around the holidays, we're seeing a lot of winter weather, but also thinking about those home fire risks, we do see a very large increase. We've responded to 52 home fire events in this region in the past two or three weeks. Just today, we had two additional home fire calls come in. That means volunteers are going out and responding. But if folks can take a little bit of preparedness to make sure that they're not, over burning outlets with plugs, or being really careful with any wood stoves or space heaters, thinking about the risks in your house, especially candles. Folks are lighting a lot of candles around the holidays in their house. Anything that you could do to prepare and mitigate any risk is greatly appreciated.
