AUBURN — The worst part is when people watch their homes on fire. It’s Janice Lara-Hewey’s job to gently get them to look away.

The longtime Red Cross volunteer is a local Disaster Action Team captain. She’s also a clinical licensed social worker, useful sometimes at emergency scenes.

“Part of it is interviewing people, getting them to not be staring at the house as it’s going up,” said Lara-Hewey, 41. “Help them mentally start the process of moving forward. ‘This is a terrible thing, (but) let’s think about what are you going to do tonight, where are you going to go, what about clothes, what about food?’”

She’s on call nights and weekends one week out of every four, covering Androscoggin County. Fires are the most common calls around here. She started with the Red Cross 13 years ago in Miami, just ahead of hurricane season.

“It’s really a tangible way to help people,” she said. “If you make a donation, that’s a wonderful thing to do, but you don’t see what that does.”

Some weeks go by without a single call, “which is a good thing.” Other weeks, once she’s alerted to an emergency, Lara-Hewey calls dispatch to find out details, then tries to reach someone at the scene to see how many other volunteers she ought to rouse.

She can spend hours at a fire, at all times of day. Her last call, in April, interrupted plans with husband Ellery.

“I am very lucky, my husband is extremely supportive,” she said. “His response was, ‘Go ahead, go.’”

He took classes to volunteer, too, but once 6-year-old daughter Pilar arrived that didn’t make sense. They couldn’t both head out the door.

She can picture herself answering those calls for years to come.

“My experience has been that people are very grateful for someone coming, especially when it’s the middle of the night,” Lara-Hewey said. “They’re all memorable for different reasons. They’ve never had a fire before. They don’t know what to do next.”

Know someone making a difference? We’re always looking for ideas. Contact staff writer Kathryn Skelton at 689-2844 or [email protected]