Bend resident Carrie Sammons, a longtime Red Cross volunteer, is among 300 other volunteers with the humanitarian organization from around the United States who are in Northern California this week assisting those displaced by the deadly Camp Fire.

Sammons has volunteered as a disaster responder for the past two decades, but hasn’t experienced a tragedy quite like this: 48 people dead, 200 people missing, more than 7,200 structures destroyed and 125,000 acres burned in just five days.

“The loss of life is just heartbreaking,” she said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “And there are still people who are searching for family members.”

Sammons, a member of the Central and Eastern Oregon chapter of the Red Cross, has responded to tropical storms, wildfires and was at the World Trade Center after Sept. 11. She spent time in Hawaii after the devastating eruption of the Kilauea volcano in May.

Red Cross volunteers are expected to start traveling within 24 hours of being contacted about a disaster. The Red Cross covers travel and lodging expenses for the volunteers.

Sammons received the call Saturday about the Northern California wildfire and flew to Sacramento on Sunday.

“I’m accustomed to doing that,” she said.

The Camp Fire, which started Thursday and has burned mostly in the town of Paradise, is considered the most destructive wildfire in California history.

Sammons is stationed at the Red Cross headquarters in Sacramento and has spent her days visiting five shelters set up in churches and schools in Chico and Oroville.

She is working with shelter staff to find out what services are needed and to find local organizations to meet those needs.

For example, she is finding laundry services for those in the shelters and is connecting with cellphone companies to provide phone charging stations and new phones for fire victims.

“We look for those specific needs and go out and find those folks to help us out,” she said.

Sammons has not seen the up-close devastation from the Camp Fire, but the thick smoke is a grim reminder of the destruction, she said.

“There is some huge loss here,” she said. “A lot of people haven’t been able to go back home to their communities and see the devastation because it’s still an active fire.”

Part of Sammons’ role has been offering people in the shelters an online link, www.safeandwell.org, to mark themselves safe or to search for a loved one.

Sammons, a retired public affairs officer with the U.S. Forest Service, has a wealth of experience responding to wildfires, although not as deadly as the Camp Fire.

“I’ve had my fair share of smoke over the years,” she said.

But the smoke filling the sky in Northern California has been some of the thickest Sammons has seen. At times, it reminds her of the summer of 2017 in Central Oregon, when smoke blanketed the region for weeks. If the Camp Fire smoke was in Bend, residents wouldn’t be able to see Pilot Butte from a mile away, she said.

Each disaster Sammons has responded to has been a different experience. But the work is the same: Helping those in need, she said.

“Every disaster has different levels of intensity,” she said. “Our job as the Red Cross is to make our clients, who are the people affected by the disaster, as comfortable as possible.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7820, kspurr@bendbulletin.com