Billy Corgan, the lead singer of Smashing Pumpkins and a native of Highland Park, forced to evacuate as wildfires continue in Los Angeles.

CHICAGO (WLS) — Local American Red Cross volunteers from Illinois are now in California, supporting wildfire relief efforts there.

ABC7 spoke with Vicky Brown, a volunteer from Rockford, on Friday morning.

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She is leaving for the fire zone on Saturday as many now face an uncertain future.

“Emotionally, you know you’re going to hear a lot of heart-wrenching stories,” Brown said.

Brown, who has 45 years of experience with the Red Cross, spent a month in the northeast, supporting disaster relief after Hurricane Helene.

Now, she is heading to California.

Helen was described as dreadful, and the current situation is feared to impact numerous individuals who have suffered significant losses, according to Brown.

Highland Park native and Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan was forced to evacuate to escape the Los Angeles wildfires.

Corgan took to social media to paint a picture of an apocalyptic scenario, expressing the challenges faced when losing power. Without electricity, accessing vital information becomes difficult and the fear of missing alerts looms large, making it hard to even go to sleep.

ABC7’s Liz Nagy was on the ground, speaking with people who fled the Altadena area.

“We just don’t know what to do. We’re at a loss,” said Joelle Fortune, who lost her home in the Altadena wildfire.

One family said the power went out early Thursday morning.

They packed up their things and left within five minutes as the flames neared their street.

Debbie Simmons shared her harrowing experience of the wildfire in Altadena, recounting how a strong gust of wind led to the destruction of her neighborhood. Witnessing the fire ravage through their property, Simmons vividly described the heartbreaking aftermath of the disaster.

Red stairs that led to what was their backdoor was the only thing they could recognize of their second-generation family home, which they lived in for 47 years.

It feels like their lives, they said, evaporated in a single moment.

“My kids, they’ve grown up in Altadena. And it’s such a community and such a family. There’s not one family that we don’t know that hasn’t been touched by this,” Fortune said.

Brown is the first of many to be deployed to the fire zone, joining others from around the country.