Photo By Airman 1st Class Gabriel Conley | U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Gabbie Wade, 92nd Air Refueling Wing judge advocate...... read more read more
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A wildfire can destroy a home in minutes. Rebuilding a life can take much longer.
When wildfires and evacuations disrupted communities across the greater Spokane area, families were suddenly faced with questions they never expected to ask: Where will we sleep tonight? What did we lose? Where do we go from here?
At Fairchild Air Force Base, those questions became the mission of the Emergency Family Assistance Center.
The EFAC quickly became a place where families could find more than emergency supplies. It became a place to find information, support and, for many, a sense that they were not facing the crisis alone.
Staff Sgt. Gabbie Wade, 92nd Air Refueling Wing noncommissioned officer in charge of litigation and Victim/Witness Assistance Program coordinator, helped lead that effort as the EFAC coordinator.
“The daily mission working in the legal office of managing crisis and helping people navigate their hardest moments is what drove me to step up and be a part of the EFAC team,” Wade said. “As the EFAC coordinator, my primary role was to bridge the gap between families in crisis and the resources they desperately needed.”
Wade said most of her time volunteering at the EFAC was spent answering phones, coordinating donations and assisting people who needed resources or a place to stay. When she wasn’t on the phone, she organized items to ensure families coming through the center could easily find what they needed.
Along with the donations, representatives from the American Red Cross and Military and Family Life Counseling Program set up tables inside the EFAC, allowing families to learn more about the resources and support available to them.
One moment that has stuck with Wade was a woman who came into the EFAC needing to start over with her family. Their home was one of the first to burn, and they had only enough time to grab important documents before evacuating.
“You can sympathize and empathize, but you can’t ever understand the severity of everything because you’re not the one going through it,” Wade said. “In that moment, you can just sit with them, listen and do as much as you can to provide them with all the right resources.”
Wade explained that the EFAC was more than just a place to find resources. It also served as a hub for accurate information and emotional triage. During a disaster like a wildfire, rumors and misinformation can spread quickly. The EFAC provided not only a place for families to receive emergency supplies, but also a safe environment where they could get accurate, up-to-date information directly from base leadership.
“We had families come in where they already knew they lost their home and they were absolutely devastated,” Wade said. “Then we had families filled with questions and confusion who didn’t know the status of their home or what they were returning to.”
Throughout the crisis, one of Wade’s biggest surprises was the number of people willing to help. Before volunteering at the EFAC, she said she didn’t fully understand how closely connected the military and civilian communities were. She received numerous calls from people offering their homes, rooms, resources and money to families affected by the fires.
“You never understand how tight-knit a community is until there’s a disaster that happens,” Wade said. “We were so overwhelmed with support that we had to stop receiving donations a couple times. We had to tell people we didn’t need any more volunteers because we had so many people wanting to help.”
Despite the emotional toll the fires took on the community, Wade said the most rewarding part of volunteering was being able to help people, even if the assistance seemed small.
The entire team volunteering at the EFAC worked together, communicating effectively throughout the response and ensuring families received the support they needed.
“We are all individual people, but in a time where it matters the most, it was all hands-on deck,” Wade said. “Everybody wanted to lend a helping hand, and it was just amazing and beautiful to see that happen.”
| Date Taken: | 09.01.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 09.03.2026 18:02 |
| Story ID: | 573929 |
| Location: | FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 20 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, In the face of fire, a community comes together, by SrA Morgan St Marks, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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