American Red Cross Southern California Region

We’re grateful to our partners at Amazon.com for including the American Red Cross in a recent tour of their Amazon Wildfire Hub in Beaumont.

This hub, powered by Amazon, helps ensure disaster relief supplies are pre-positioned and ready to go, so first responders, the Red Cross and community partners can respond quickly when emergencies strike. By staging supplies near high-risk areas, support can quickly reach people in need.

The scale and impact of this hub are impressive: more than 20,000 specialized wildfire relief items are available — including air filters, respirators, fire-safe boots, hydration packets and trauma kits — alongside approximately 200,000 essential relief supplies like medical devices, toiletries and diapers.

Developed in collaboration with organizations serving wildfire-impacted communities, including the Red Cross, After the Fire, COPE Preparedness and the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation, this hub helps power partnership in action.

As one of several Amazon Disaster Relief Hubs worldwide, and part of a network that has delivered more than 26 million relief items in response to over 200 disasters globally since 2017, this Wildfire Hub helps ensure communities are supported before, during and after disasters.

We’re honored to be part of these efforts, and we’re thankful for partners like Amazon who stand with us to deliver help and hope when it’s needed most.

Red Cross volunteer Zane Smith started volunteering more than a year ago, but shares that the Garden Grove hazmat incident was his first disaster response.

“It’s almost the same pace of an operation helicopter squadron. Without the noise,” says Zane about how quickly the response was moving.

Zane greeted many shelter residents by name, shaking their hands and sharing details that he had learned about residents while they stayed at Freedom Hall. He enjoyed his experience helping out and says, “Everyone staying at the shelter has been super.”

As a Marine Corps veteran, Zane says he knows the importance of taking care of people. He shares the best way to describe why he volunteers with the Red Cross is a quote from a movie, “God put you in my path so I must take care of you.”

As we continue to wrap up our Red Cross response, we're grateful to volunteers like Zane who make our mission possible.

In response to the Garden Grove hazmat incident more than 1,400 residents sought refuge across 7 Red Cross shelters. Dozens of additional residents visited our shelters each day for food, water, support and information. With the help of partners, a total of over 28,000 meals and snacks were provided.

Thank you to more than 270 Red Crossers for bringing help and hope to the community when it was needed most!

Disaster response is a team effort! As we wrap up our response to the Garden Grove hazmat incident, we want to thank our generous partners for teaming up to provide comfort and care to those in need. ❤️

In coordination with emergency management partners, and as a result of evacuations being lifted, the shelters that were opened in response to the Garden Grove hazmat incident will close on Wednesday, May 27 by 5 p.m. Thank you to our volunteers and partners for continuing to assist those who were evacuated return home safely!

Boomer the 20 year old Pigeon is heading home today as her evacuation orders were lifted last night. She has been staying with her owner at the Freedom Hall shelter and both have enjoyed getting to know more of their neighbors over the past few days, but they are excited to return home.

Rue the Chihuahua is still staying at the Freedom Hall shelter. Until he can return home, he's enjoying many pets from friendly neighbors and volunteers.

***UPDATED INCIDENT MAP***

To view the map, click this link: https://ocsheriff.gov/resources-during-disaster

Effective as of Monday, May 25 at 6pm, the red shaded area represents the newest evacuation zone, while the red outline represents the previous evacuation zone.

We ask that you continue listening to law enforcement and do NOT enter the newly evacuated area.

Thank you to our community members for your continued support, patience, and cooperation.

We're endlessly grateful for our partners who are helping care for those in need!❤

Thanks to our volunteers for working around the clock to bring help and hope to those impacted by the Garden Grove hazmat incident. We remain in close contact with emergency management partners to continuously assess response needs.

For open shelters and shelter capacity information, visit redcross.org/SoCal and click Shelter Locations and Real Time Updates.