The volunteer team from the American Red Cross of Northeast California, Almanor Basin Branch went into action Sunday, Aug. 19, in preparation for community members displaced due to fire evacuations in Canyon Dam.

“We began arriving at 5:50 p.m. and had shelter operations at the Chester Memorial Hall ready to go by 7 p.m.,” lead volunteer Linda White said Aug. 20.

Shortly after going operational, the volunteers were visited by Plumas County District 3 Supervisor Sherrie Thrall and Plumas County Office of Emergency Services Director Jerry Sipe.

From 7 to 11 p.m. the only other visitor to the shelter was a gentleman from the East Shore of Lake Almanor.

“Although his area was not listed for evacuation, he stopped by because he wanted to know what would be available at the shelter,” White said.

The volunteers closed the shelter, due to a lack of need, at 11 p.m.

White was back at the Chester Memorial Hall by 9 a.m. today. She said the shelter would be on standby Aug. 20 pending word from Sipe.

Michelle Perkins, the regional Red Cross director, arrived in Chester at approximately 11 a.m.

“I received a call from Jerry Sipe at 9:22 this morning advising that Prattville was being evacuated,” Perkins said.

White received a follow-up call from Sipe at 9:58 a.m.

Perkins oversees Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Plumas, Sierra, Sutter, Yuba and Beale Air Force Base counties for American Red Cross.

The Chester Memorial Hall is at the Corner of Gay and Stone streets, one block of Main Street, behind Maria’s Mexican Restaurant in Old Town Chester.

For more information on the Chips or Reading Fires, go to our Wildfire Page.