SANTA PAULA : Volunteers Sought for Disaster Teams

The Ventura County Red Cross will address the Santa Paula City Council on Monday in an effort to recruit volunteers for its Santa Paula disaster action team.

There are seven Red Cross volunteers in Santa Paula trained to help victims of residential fires by providing them with food, shelter and financial support immediately after a fire and until permanent shelter can be found, said Brian Bolton, executive director of the Ventura County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

“We would like to eventually have 25 to 30 people trained,” Bolton said.

Volunteers are trained to assess the costs of fire damage, to set up shelters and quickly obtain food and clothing, and to help families in their search for a new place to live, Bolton said.

“There is a commitment to go through 16-30 hours of training within a year’s period,” plus yearly updates in training, Bolton said.

The Red Cross also has disaster action teams in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Oxnard, Fillmore and Ventura. Bolton estimated that there are about 300 volunteers in the county.

“It’s important that each community have its own volunteer team,” Bolton said, because in the event of a major disaster like an earthquake, areas of the county might be cut off.

The Ventura County Red Cross responded to four fires in Santa Paula this fiscal year, which ends June 30. One fire, in an apartment building on South 10th Street, left 47 people without homes.

The Red Cross spent more than $24,000 on assistance to the South 10th Street fire victims out of the total $81,000 spent in the county this year. Its budget for disaster assistance, based on yearly agency spending averages in the county, is $19,206.

“Since we exceeded our budget of $19,206 back in December, the National Red Cross Disaster Fund has given Ventura County more than $62,000 to ensure that we continue to meet the immediate, emergency needs of all disaster victims,” said Martharuth Lefever, Ventura County Red Cross director of emergency services.