‘Our work is changing all the time’: why no two days are the same for an emergency responder

From assisting people fleeing the conflict in Sudan to supporting those affected by fires or floods, the British Red Cross is always ready to respond during a crisis. Here, two volunteers share the experiences that have shaped themMohammed Abdulkarim remembers clearly the first time he was called out as a British Red Cross emergency response volunteer four years ago. A fire, thought to have been started by a discarded cigarette, ripped through a seven-storey student accommodation block in Bolton within minutes. All 217 students were safely rescued from the blaze thanks to 200 firefighters and fire engines from across the region.It was up to Abdulkarim and his trained British Red Cross team to run the emergency centre set up in the borough, which is part of Greater Manchester, to support students made homeless by the fire. “The entire building had burnt down and the whole of the area had to be evacuated,” he says. “I was based in the rest centre where a flow of people were coming in and