Volunteers use response training
as fire threatens nursing home

Emergency response trainees don’t usually have the opportunity to put their knowledge into action so soon after training, but volunteers at First UMC, Johnson City, did.
Four days after the American Red Cross trained the Blanco County Disaster Response Group in shelter operations—which included turning the First UMC Activities Building into a temporary shelter—volunteers were notified that grassfires threatened a nursing home in the area.
The Emergency Medical Service reported that fires along Avenue F south of Johnson City might reach the nursing home, which would mean residents would need a safe place to stay. EMS responders asked the team to be on standby in case the home’s residents were evacuated.
“It was good that they thought ahead,” said George Cofran, manager of the Disaster Response Group’s shelter team and a paramedic. “Moving that number of frail people would be slow and hazardous, and the fire could have been moving fast.”
Cofran coordinated with EMS, the sheriff’s dispatcher and County Judge Bill Guthrie while preparing the shelter to open.
The Rev. Judy Baskin, First UMC pastor, was in a meeting in Marble Falls when the call about the shelter came. She said she hurried home “to see that the shelter had all the support it needed from the church.”
After a few hours, EMS Director Tim Vasquez called from the fire scene to say the firefighters had stopped the blaze and the evacuation shelter could stand down.
“It certainly wasn’t a waste of time for the Disaster Response Group,” Cofran said. “We found ways to improve our plan and lines of communication that need to be tightened up. We did a good job this time, but next time we’ll do even better.”