Local Red Cross volunteer heads to Los Angeles to help with wildfire relief

A local Red Cross volunteer is going to California to assist with relief efforts for those affected by massive wildfires.

Zonia Quero-Ziada said on Friday that it wasn’t her first time going to the state to assist with relief efforts. She went last year to assist after flooding in the San Francisco area. Quero-Ziada estimates she has been on around 40 Red Cross assignments in her time with the organization. 

A Red Cross volunteer for almost 20 years, Quero-Ziada said she was motivated to travel to Los Angeles to assist after seeing the destruction on the news. 

“It broke my heart to see the videos in the press…whole neighborhoods completely turned to ashes,” she said. “You cannot just sit on your couch and look at the news. You have to do something. You have to move. You have to act.”

Quero-Ziada stressed that if people can’t go and be “boots on the ground” like herself, they can help by donating because there will be a huge need as thousands of people will be in shelters and displaced. 

Quero-Ziada will be leaving for Los Angeles on Friday. She will be helping to instruct new volunteers as they arrive at Red Cross centers to help with relief efforts.

Having lived in Washington, Quero-Ziada said she has dealt with wildfires before. She has also worked with the Red Cross to help set up shelters for wildfire victims in Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Montana. She stressed that preparing to enter a disaster zone is difficult, as you can never really be fully prepared for what you will be dealing with. 

“It doesn’t matter how much you think you are prepared, you are never prepared because every disaster is different,” Quero-Ziada said.