Oakland Fire Captain and Red Cross Volunteer Brian Oftedal attends Career Day at Ron Nunn Elementary School in Brentwood with his daughter, Camryn. Photo courtesy of Brian Oftedal
From the time he was a little boy, Oakland Fire Captain Brian Oftedal knew he wanted to be a firefighter. Brian laughs about writing an autobiography in kindergarten, “I talked about how when I grow up, I wanted to be a firefighter-paramedic, just like John Gage and Roy DeSoto in “Emergency.” With my friends, our bikes would be our emergency vehicles and we would open and close the garage door and respond to calls.”
It didn’t take long for Brian to fulfill his lifelong dream, and in the process, to make a decades-long connection with the Red Cross. As a teenager, Brian took part in the Paramedic Explorer program, got his EMT certificate, and took the Red Cross Professional Rescuer CPR and First Aid Class. “Brian was born to serve,” says Eva Marquez, American Red Cross Volunteer Engagement Manager. “He was in high school when he started and was the youngest volunteer on our team. I would see him volunteering at the Red Cross First Aid Station at the Livermore Wente Winery during their concert or co-teaching a CPR/First Aid class with a big smile.”
Red Cross Free Smoke Alarms Alert Marin County Family During House Fire
“I said, ‘A fire! A fire! Let’s get out. Everybody get out!’”
The Monthier family home the night of Sept. 3, 2023.
Marie Monthier will never forget what happened in the early morning hours of September 3, 2023. She and her extended family of two older adults, two adult children and two small grandchildren were asleep in their mobile home in Marin County, California. Marie got up to use the restroom and heard smoke alarms blaring. That’s when she saw a fire behind the kitchen stove and alerted her family to evacuate.
Marie’s son, David Mardy, had just moved into his own apartment in Marin County. When his mother called him after everyone got out of the house safely, David rushed over and found the home in ruins and his family in shock.
“The whole family was on the street, standing, looking at the house burning down. My mom said, ‘Look at my house!’ Tears started coming out of my eyes,” David said.
“What you guys are doing, you reassure us that people are out there and care.”
Lucie Tison and her husband Tom at his house in San Rafael. Photo by Marcia Antipa / American Red Cross
Lucie Tison and her husband Tom have lived in the Contempo Marin Mobile Home Park in San Rafael for 17 years. On a recent Saturday morning, teams of volunteers from the Red Cross fanned out across this community of 400 homes to install free smoke alarms for residents. This Sound the Alarm event is part of the Red Cross Home Fire Campaign, a national program designed to save lives from home fires through installation of free smoke alarms and fire safety education.
As of August 23rd, the Red Cross announced that since the start of the Home Fire Campaign in October of 2014, volunteers have installed more than 2.5 million free smoke alarms with almost 2,000 documented lives saved thanks to those smoke alarms and fire safety education.
“I truly feel honored to share my story to maybe help just one person!”
Kathie Reinholds of Brentwood is a big believer in “paying it forward.” More than 50 years ago, as a teenager in Hayward, she won an award for her volunteer work with the American Red Cross. Decades later, the Red Cross was able to pay Kathie back for her selfless work – not once, but twice!
Kathie’s home in Paradise, Calif., before it was destroyed by the Camp Fire in 2018.
On November 8, 2018, Kathie was sound asleep in her home in Paradise, California. She lived alone, having lost her husband Gary four years earlier. What happened to her that morning is what she calls “a story and a half.”
“Something woke me up and I thought it was the middle of the night,” says Kathie. “I looked at my phone and it was 8 a.m. Normally I would roll over, but something pushed me up. I like to think it was my husband, my guardian angel.”
Kathie ran outside and found a strange scene.
The eerie glow from the Camp Fire on the morning of November 8, 2018.
“I was up on a hill and overlooked everything. It was the weirdest red sky. I thought it was a cool sunrise.”
What she saw was the smoke and flames from the Camp Fire, which raced through Paradise that morning, killing 85 people and destroying much of the town.
“We had no system in place to learn that there was a fire. All the emergency towers burned down; it just spread so fast.”
Kathie credits a neighbor for saving her life.
“She called me and said, ‘Get out now, kiddo!’”
Kathie managed to throw a few things into her car but could not find her cat and had to leave her behind. She drove through the burning town, sitting in gridlock, then on to Chico, Sacramento, and finally Lodi, where she met up with her grown children.
The burnt remains of Kathie’s Paradise home.
Kathie was able to return to Paradise the following month but found her home had burned to the ground and her cat had disappeared.
“It was horrible,” she says, choking up. “That same month I almost died. I had a heart attack. I think I’m on maybe my fourth life,” Kathie says, laughing through her tears. “I don’t know how many ‘Get Out of Jail’ cards I get but I’ve used quite a few!”
Kathie says she received financial help from FEMA and from the Red Cross. “They also had a table for travel-sized personal needs that became a staple in part of my many trips to Paradise and recreating my life.”
Kathie finally was able to create that new life for herself at a mobile home park in Brentwood in Contra Costa County. “I couch surfed for several months and moved five times before I landed the house in Brentwood. This experience either makes you humble and grateful or angry. I choose humble!”
Red Cross volunteers installing free smoke alarms in Kathie’s Brentwood community.
Five years after that devastating wildfire, Kathie once again connected with the American Red Cross. Volunteers with the Red Cross Sound the Alarm program came to her mobile home park this April to install free smoke alarms for residents.
Kathie says, “I was so thrilled. My ceilings are really high. I’m thinking, ‘how I am I going to do this?’”
The volunteer crews put in several new smoke alarms in her home. When they learned she was hard of hearing, they arranged for another crew to return and install a “bed shaker” alarm. This specialized device includes a vibrating pad that can be placed under a pillow or mattress. The bed shaker connects to other alarms in a home and features a strobe light that can rouse people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Now, Kathie tells us she feels much safer in her new home. “Oh yes, absolutely! I know at any time, anything can happen, when you least expect it, I know it. I will be forever grateful to the Red Cross.”
Kathie still believes in the Red Cross values she learned in high school and the lessons from the Camp Fire. “I have a ‘pay it forward closet.’ That closet contains a rotating supply of pots, pans, linens and other items for people in need. “Everyone should have one!”
To learn more about preparing for a home or wildfire, visit redcross.org/prepare.
Jen Bottalico, Manager at Alex. Brown San Francisco, practices chest compressions. Photo by Marcia Antipa / American Red Cross
One recent afternoon high up inside a San Francisco skyscraper, the sounds of “Are you alright?” and “Clear!” rang out. Red Cross CPR manikins lay between the office desks, with a dozen office workers kneeling beside them practicing chest compressions. These employees of Alex.Brown, a division of Raymond James*, were learning the basics of lifesaving first aid measures.
Officer Manager Jennifer Bottalico and Branch Administrative Manager Cheryl Fox arranged the training through the local Red Cross office. “We decided we wanted to try to do everything we could to kind of protect our employees because we view them as family. So, for us, it’s just that we wanted to be able to go back to them and say if we ever had an incident that we did everything that we absolutely could,” they said.
Cheryl Fox said she and Bottalico were inspired to take steps after a colleague in another office suffered a medical emergency. The frightening on-field cardiac arrest of Buffalo Bills football player Damar Hamlin also drove home the need to be prepared.
“It was scary, because I don’t think you ever think somebody of his age, that that’s going to happen to somebody that’s 20-something years old. Very scary,” she said.
Instructor Thom Volz of VCT services, a strategic partner with the Red Cross, started the class with a pep talk.
“Know where the first aid kits are in the places we travel to regularly, so we can get this response going, know where the AED kits are,” he said. Volz also told the class it can typically take ten minutes for first responders to arrive, so it’s important to be prepared with the equipment and skills needed to save a life.
Volz divided the class into teams of three people, who practiced CPR on the manikins. “We’re trying to build habits right now,” Volz told the class, “So arms locked out, lean over the person to give compressions; one cycle of CPR for adults.”
The team of Alex.Brown in San Francisco practicing CPR and AED use. Photo by Marcia Antipa / American Red Cross
Then the teams learned to use an AED, or automated external defibrillator, a device that analyzes the victim’s heart rhythm, and, if needed, delivers a shock to restore the normal heartbeat.
Office Manager Bottalico says after she took a Red Cross training class, she received approval from their head office to buy an AED for the San Francisco branch.
“If somebody’s not breathing it’s a matter of seconds, so I think the investment into an AED for the office – hopefully we never have to use it – the investment is worth it. We worked with our counterparts at Raymond James …and they didn’t hesitate.”
The teams also learned how to save the life of a person who is choking. Office members Renee Sessa and Samantha Hsu teamed up to practice chest thrusts. For Sessa, a frightening incident that almost took a friend’s life convinced her to take this class.
“He was 60 and he went into cardiac arrest and luckily there was somebody that was trained and was able to immediately administer CPR to him and saved his life.”
Renee says she wants to be able to do the same for a family member or co-worker. “I hope to be able to…save someone’s life or help save someone’s life in the event of an emergency.”
Office Manager Bottalico says the class was a success. “We can always tell by the level of questions that are asked by the team how much they are paying attention,” she says, laughing. “They all were engaged today so I think everyone realizes the value of it. People realize that sometimes it’s going to be up to them.”
*Raymond James & Associates, Inc., member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC *Raymond James & Associates, Inc., is not affiliated with any of the above outside organizations.
Red Cross Volunteers Bring Hot Meals to RV Campers
Dave Martin gets hot meals from Red Cross volunteers. Photo by Marcia Antipa/American Red Cross
“They tell you to get out and that’s it.”
Dave Martin and a few dozen other RV Campers have sought refuge in a rain-drenched parking lot in Hollister during the recent California storms. All of them were forced to evacuate RV campgrounds in the area when the floodwaters rose and threatened to swamp their vehicles.
Robin Lewis also brought his camper to this lot after a harrowing few days seeking a safe haven.
“We stayed by the side of the road for a few days, went to another place, came here, and we’re worried about where we’re going to head to next.”
Mario Garcia at the Red Cross response vehicle. Photo by Marcia Antipa
Then, the American Red Cross arrived with hot food and two friendly faces: volunteers Roberta Jones of Silver Creek, Washington, and Felix Rodriguez of Madera, California. The two dished out meals, snacks and bottled water from inside an Emergency Response Vehicle.
“It’s great,” said Robin Lewis after picking up a few meals. “There’s a need for help here, not just us, there’s a lot of people. We’re way better off than a lot of people, for sure.”
Red Cross volunteer Roberta Jones. Photo by Marcia Antipa
Camper Mario Garcia accepted his meals with a big smile, and brought food to another camper, who he said was too shy to accept food. Mario says he makes the most of what could be a dreary experience. He even plans to attend a “Learn to Salsa Dance” event at a Hollister dance club.
Volunteers Roberta Jones and Felix Rodriguez get a little choked up when asked why they volunteer with the Red Cross during a disaster. The reason, Jones says, is simple.
“The people. Everyone is so grateful, and that’s why I do this, because they are just so grateful. Don’t make me cry,” she says, laughing.
The Red Cross needs more volunteers like Roberta and Felix. If you would like to help, please visit redcross.org/volunteer.
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