Voluntary Organisations That Help in UK Emergencies

When something goes badly wrong in the UK, a house fire, a flood, a long power cut or an evacuation, the help that arrives is not only from the emergency services. Most emergencies in the UK are handled at the local level by the emergency services, local authorities and other relevant organisations such as utility companies and transport operators¹, and working alongside them is a layer of voluntary organisations: the British Red Cross, search and rescue charities, 4x4 response groups, faith groups and neighbourhood volunteers. Community responders and the voluntary sector play a crucial role in the resilience of the UK².

For an ordinary household, this matters in two ways. First, it tells you who may turn up at your door or at a rest centre, and what they can do for you: the British Red Cross responds to an emergency in the UK approximately every four hours³. Second, it tells you how you can be part of it, because almost all of this help is given by trained volunteers, and joining a recognised organisation before an emergency happens is far more useful than turning up unannounced during one⁴.

What voluntary organisations do in a UK emergency

Voluntary organisations do not work separately from the emergency services; they work inside the same local arrangements. Across England, those arrangements are led by Local Resilience Forums, partnerships made up of representatives from local public services, including the emergency services, local authorities, the NHS, the Environment Agency and other organisations involved in emergency preparedness, such as utilities providers⁸. Wales has four Local Resilience Forums, and the equivalent in Northern Ireland are Emergency Preparedness Groups⁸. In Scotland, councils' civil contingencies teams co-ordinate the response, including the alerting and call out of voluntary agencies such as the British Red Cross and the Royal Voluntary Service, and liaise with the emergency services or utility providers⁹.

What this means in practice is that when a council opens a rest centre or evacuates a street, the voluntary agencies are called out through the same plan. Somerset, for example, has a Somerset Emergency Voluntary Agencies Group: these agencies help the emergency services and local authorities during emergencies, and the council provides training for the voluntary agencies that work with it¹⁰. In West Yorkshire, the emergency services, health services, local authorities, government agencies, utility companies and voluntary organisations work together through West Yorkshire Prepared to make sure plans are in place for dealing with, and recovering from, emergencies¹¹.

The voluntary bodies themselves range from national charities to small neighbourhood groups:

Specialist national organisations that work with volunteers to respond to local and national emergencies include Communities Prepared, British Red Cross, REACT, 4X4 Response UK and RAYNET-UK¹³. Alongside them sit faith groups, community councils and residents' groups, who may for example provide hot food or shelter¹⁴. If you want to build this kind of help into your own street's plans, our guide to setting up a local emergency group covers the first steps.

The British Red Cross: an emergency response every four hours

The British Red Cross is the voluntary organisation a household is most likely to meet, because of how often it is called out. The British Red Cross responds to an emergency in the UK approximately every four hours, and helps around half a million people in the UK every year to prepare for, respond to and recover from a crisis such as house fires, floods and evacuations³. It supports rest centres and provides safe spaces offering emotional and practical support³.

The Red Cross's emergency response support service is designed to meet the needs of people who have suffered damage to their home following a fire, flood or similar incident¹⁵. Its volunteers can provide emotional support and care for those affected while the emergency services manage the incident¹⁵. That division of work is the point: the firefighters, paramedics or police are dealing with the incident itself, and the Red Cross volunteers are dealing with the people standing outside it, often in shock, often in nightclothes, often with children or pets and nowhere to go.

Beyond the immediate incident, the Red Cross offers emergency help with things like accommodation, clothing and food, as well as help dealing with insurance companies⁷. You do not have to wait to be offered this: contact the Red Cross for emergency help through its get-help pages at redcross.org.uk/get-help⁷.

Help after a house fire or flood: the Fire and Emergency Support Service

The most likely way a household meets the Red Cross is through the Fire and Emergency Support Service, usually shortened to FESS. The fire and emergency support service aims to support people who have suffered damage to their homes following a fire, flood or similar incident¹⁶. It is run in partnership between fire and rescue services and the British Red Cross, by trained volunteers who offer practical and emotional support¹⁶. Voluntary donations to the British Red Cross cover the cost¹⁶.

FESS has existed since 1999, and since the formation of the service it has assisted in excess of 10,000 people⁵. The help it gives is deliberately broad, because the aftermath of a fire or flood creates many small needs at once. In Northern Ireland, where the scheme is run by the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, the documented list of help includes:

• Immediate emotional and practical support
• Provision of hygiene packs and clothing
• Temporary shelter within the vehicle
• Support in seeking alternative accommodation
• Support with the care of children, and provision of toys and books
• Support with the care of pets
• Signposting to other organisations for further assistance and recovery
• Refreshments, and use of a telephone
• Retrieval of personal items, data collection, and photographic evidence for occupants
• Use of shower and toilet facilities
• Transportation to alternative accommodation
• Basic first aid and AED⁵

The service also supports the responders themselves: it provides food, toilet facilities and comfort facilities for firefighters at larger or prolonged incidents, supports family members and emergency services at road traffic collisions, and staffs rest centres for people who have had to leave their homes as a result of a gas leak or security alert⁵. If you have had to leave your home, our page on how councils and emergency services work with local groups explains the wider machinery behind that.

What the support vehicle carries

FESS help is delivered from a specially adapted vehicle. In Warwickshire, trained British Red Cross volunteers use a specially adapted vehicle equipped with a hot shower, clothing, a mobile telephone, baby food, a camera for clients to take photographs for insurance purposes and a small kitchen¹⁶. In Northern Ireland, the FESS team use a specially adapted motor home, equipped with hygiene, feeding, and rest facilities⁵.

The contents are worth knowing about because they answer the questions people actually have in the hour after a fire: where can I wash, what will I wear, how do I feed my baby, how do I call anyone, and how do I prove what I have lost. The camera on board exists so occupants can take photographs for insurance purposes¹⁶, and volunteers help with retrieval of personal items and data collection⁵. You should also take pictures of any damage which has occurred and keep records of repairs and cleaning costs, as this may help your insurance claim¹⁷.

When FESS attends: called by fire officers, or automatically at large incidents

You cannot call FESS out yourself. The vehicle is mobilised on the request of fire officers at the scene of an incident¹⁶. In Warwickshire, the vehicle is based at Kenilworth fire station¹⁶; in Northern Ireland, teams are located strategically at Cadogan, Crescent Link and Enniskillen Fire Stations, providing a 50 mile radius cover or 70 minute travel time to any incident, 24/7/365⁵.

There is also an automatic trigger. FESS teams automatically attend large scale incidents where 6 or more fire appliances are required, and specialist rescue incidents including water rescue, rope rescue, body recovery, farming accidents and flooding⁵. To put that threshold in context, some fire and rescue services now send, as a minimum, six fire engines and an aerial ladder platform to all confirmed fires in high rise buildings¹⁸, which means a confirmed fire in a tower block will bring FESS with it. The teams are volunteers from the British Red Cross who give their time freely, responding to incidents 24/7/365⁵.

Help during a long power cut

Voluntary organisations come into their own when an emergency stretches over hours or days. A long power cut is the classic case. Councils' civil contingencies arrangements treat the voluntary sector as a principal concern in an emergency situation, covering support for the emergency services, support and care for the local and wider community, and co-ordination of the response by organisations other than the emergency services⁹. Voluntary groups often hold the local knowledge: Argyll Voluntary Action, for example, is in contact with large numbers of older people through its work with "Reshaping Care for Older People", and some of these may become at risk if, for example, power is out for lengthy periods⁹.

For your own household, the first call in a power cut is not a charity but your electricity network operator: dial 105⁶. Around you, neighbourhood groups are advised to make a plan to check in on people who might need help if an emergency happens, particularly if the power goes out¹². If you want to be one of the people doing the checking, our guide to checking on vulnerable neighbours in an emergency and our page on power cuts set out what to do safely.

Rest centres, transport and food parcels

When homes have to be evacuated, the council opens a rest centre. Nottinghamshire's emergency accommodation plan details how the council provides emergency accommodation, including setting up and running a rest centre when homes and communities need to be evacuated, and how it will work with other agencies including police, fire, ambulance, district and borough councils and voluntary agencies¹⁹. Rest centres provide short-term shelter, warmth, food and refreshment, and are usually in local venues such as a leisure or community building²⁰.

Voluntary organisations staff and supply these centres. The Salvation Army can respond to emergencies by providing on-site refreshments and emotional support to responders and those affected, support at rest centres or humanitarian assistance centres, support to family and friends at an emergency mortuary viewing area, acting as a conduit for relevant faith support, and providing personnel to assist at any support helpline set up following an emergency³. Community plans name the same roles at village level: Aberaeron's community emergency plan in Wales designates its leisure centre as a local authority rest centre and safe place, and its memorial hall as a primary volunteer reception centre, with volunteers to provide refreshments at non-local-authority rest centres such as the church hall²¹.

If you are evacuated with a pet, rest centres and their voluntary helpers are part of the arrangement for animals too; see our pets and animals guide. If you turn up at a rest centre to volunteer during an emergency, be patient: you may be asked to come back later or do another task, your details and contact information will be taken, and unknown volunteers are always supervised and supported⁴.

Short-term help with essentials when money runs out

The aftermath of an emergency often creates costs a household cannot immediately meet: clothing, food, a night's accommodation, travel. The Red Cross offers emergency help with things like accommodation, clothing and food, as well as help dealing with insurance companies⁷. Contact it through redcross.org.uk/get-help⁷.

Voluntary organisations also plug gaps for the responders. Dorset Search and Rescue, known as DorSAR, has a particular shortage of support volunteers for non-operational tasks such as administrative processes, writing grant applications, fundraising and raising the profile of the organisation³. That is worth remembering if you want to help but cannot commit to operational training: the behind-the-scenes work is what keeps the front-line help funded and organised. Our page on funding for local resilience groups covers where community groups can apply for grants.

Free emergency workshops for households and communities

You do not have to wait for an emergency to meet these organisations. Somerset Council will, on request, give talks on emergency planning and what can be achieved to provide community self-help during emergencies²². Councils and resilience forums elsewhere run similar sessions, and joining one before anything happens is the single most useful step a household or street can take.

For organisations, government publishes structured guidance for the voluntary and community sector. A flood-health action card, published in March 2025, summarises suggested health-related actions for voluntary and community sector organisations, including broad-based providers, emergency response organisations, campaigning organisations, representative groups, community centres, parish councils and neighbourhood forums, before, during and after flooding²³. During flooding, such organisations are advised to mobilise volunteers to assist vulnerable individuals with evacuation or staying safe in place, and to provide shelter and essential supplies²³. A heat-health alert action card similarly advises the sector to complete an audit of organisational community emergency plans and hot weather plans to ensure these are up to date before summer, and on an amber alert to support organisations to reduce unnecessary travel, review the safety of public events and mobilise community and voluntary support²⁴.

If you would like to help during an emergency, look out for calls for support from local community groups and your local council; in some emergencies calls for support may come from national government or national voluntary organisations²⁵. Joining or supporting a local volunteering or community group before an emergency happens, such as a local charity, a flood action group or a Neighbourhood Watch, puts you in a position to answer those calls¹³. Our community resilience guide gathers the options, from flood action groups to good neighbour schemes.

How to volunteer in emergencies

The clearest finding from official guidance is this: volunteers from recognised organisations are more likely to be used than "ad hoc" volunteers, as their background will be known to their organisation managers and their skills recognised⁴. Spontaneous goodwill is real and common, but in a live incident the responders need people whose training and vetting they can trust. The route that works is to join and train beforehand.

The options span a wide range of commitment and physical demand:

FESS volunteering is a good illustration of what is asked. To volunteer you should be caring and keen to help others in need, enjoy meeting people from different backgrounds, understand the needs of people who are distressed, and be reasonably fit and healthy¹⁶. As a volunteer you will receive all the necessary training to perform the required tasks, including working with the fire service at the scene of an incident, first aid and assisting people with disabilities¹⁶. Our page on volunteering in emergencies sets out the roles you can train for, and what volunteers can safely do, and where to stop covers the limits.

Mountain, lowland and water rescue

Search and rescue work is largely done by volunteer charities. Dorset Search and Rescue is one example, and its stated need for non-operational support volunteers shows that these charities run on administrators and fundraisers as much as on searchers³. On the water side, the boats mostly belong to the emergency services: London Fire Brigade's fire rescue units provide urban search and rescue, rope rescue and water rescue capabilities, and are equipped with a boat, while its hazmat units provide a specialist response to hazardous materials incidents, water rescue and animal rescue²⁶. The Brigade operates 155 fire engines from 102 fire stations providing an emergency response 24 hours a day, all year round²⁶, and during floods it typically also assists other services, including police, ambulance and environmental health, to help people to safety²⁷. Its flood response uses 3.8m Emergency Rescue Boats with 15hp outboard motors and trained swift water rescue technicians²⁷.

If you live or holiday on a boat, the same network applies: nidirect advice for boat fires is to raise the alarm with the emergency services and neighbouring craft, and to use an emergency grab bag²⁸. For the community side of flood response, see community flood plans and flood wardens.

Where to get help: a quick reference

• After a fire or flood damaging your home: the FESS vehicle may attend automatically at large incidents, or be requested by fire officers⁵
• Red Cross emergency help: redcross.org.uk/get-help, for accommodation, clothing, food and help with insurers⁷
• Power cut: dial 105⁶
• Evacuation: go to the rest centre named by the council, usually a leisure or community building²⁰
• Wanting to help during an emergency: watch for calls from local community groups, your council, or national government and voluntary organisations²⁵
• Wanting to help before one: join a recognised organisation, from a flood action group to FESS itself¹³

One further route worth knowing: you can register as ResusReady through the Resuscitation Council UK website and add yourself to the growing network of people prepared to help in a cardiac arrest²⁹. The Royal Voluntary Service, one of the voluntary agencies councils call out in an emergency⁹, can be reached on 0845 601 4670³⁰. Neither replaces the emergency services: always call 999 when life is at risk.