Jan. 22, 2025 – It was pitch black and smoky at 4 a.m., when Vivianne Parker, 66, of Altadena, California, got the emergency notice to evacuate now as the Eaton Canyon wildfire was approaching her home.
She hurriedly gathered some necessities and set out to walk the 3 miles to the Pasadena Convention Center, the nearest evacuation center. Soon, another neighbor joined her walk, then another neighbor saw them and offered to drive them to the center.
Inside the center, she and hundreds of other evacuees had cots and other amenities; outside, representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other groups had set up shop.
“We’ve had support from the beginning,” Parker said in an interview a week after her arrival.
In Search of Comfort, Connections
Inside the evacuation center, social worker Elizabeth Hamilton, LCSW, MPH, senior director of regional behavioral health at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, was offering a listening ear to the evacuees. “People are looking for comfort,” she said, and are reaching out to others to get that. “There is comfort in connections, in knowing people have your back.”
Some call this psychological first aid, an approach used by mental health experts to reduce distress, encourage hope, and help people affected reconnect with family and friends. The support and connections just after a wildfire disaster can go a long way in preserving mental health, researchers have found.
After a wildfire disaster, receiving good support from the community is at the top of the list for mental health, according to Vincent Agyapong, MD, PhD, a professor and head of psychiatry at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who has long researched the mental health status of people affected by wildfires and other climate events.
“The most positive predictor of psychological well-being was the perception you are receiving good support from the community.” That support can come from family, friends, local groups, or government, he said.
Los Angeles Responds
As the fires continue to burn, the Los Angeles community continues to offer support.
As of January 22, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Eaton Fire was 91% contained; Palisades, 68%. More than 15,700 structures have been destroyed and more than 40,000 acres burned. About 200,000 people were under evacuation orders at first, although some of those orders were later lifted.
Restaurants invited people affected by the fire to stop by for a meal. Hotels and short-term rentals are offering free or discounted stays. One collection point – Santa Anita Park, near the Eaton Fire – was so full of donations just four days after the fires began, the organizers said they didn’t need more of some donations. Animal shelters helped evacuate small and large animals. Music benefits with big names are scheduled. GoFundMe accounts to help people rebuild are being set up at brisk rates. A synagogue in Pacific Palisades that survived the fire put together an information panel with speakers who had lost their homes in previous fires. A Veterans of Foreign Wars post miles from the fires is hosting a $10-a-bowl pozole benefit, giving proceeds to displaced veterans. Clothing retailers are offering new clothes, gratis, to those affected.
As Wildfires Grow, Research Accumulates
In 2024, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information, more than 61,000 U.S. wildfires burned more than 8.8 billion acres, the seventh-most burned acreage over the last 25 years. As the number of wildfires grows, research on the mental health effects is increasing.
Alison Hwong, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford School of Medicine, analyzed data from the California Health Interview Survey, which in 2021 added questions about exposure to extreme weather events and mental health. More than half, 53%, reported their mental health was affected by climate events such as wildfires. Young, White, college-educated respondents, as well as women and rural residents, were more likely to report poorer mental health, but Hwong can’t entirely explain that finding. People with mental health issues are more vulnerable, she and others said.
Agyapong’s team tracked the mental health status of residents affected by the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in Canada, with 2,400 homes destroyed and 88,000 people evacuated. “Those who reported no support from the community were at greater risk of mental health problems at six months and also at five years,” Agyapong said. Family and friend support also protected people from depression, he found. His team reviewed 63 published studies on the impact of wildfires on mental health, finding an increased rate of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety both right after the disaster and for years after.
Let Them Talk – When They Are Ready
Just after evacuation, “people are seeking immediate relief,” said Dawn Gillam, a licensed clinical social worker and executive leader of behavioral health services at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. “They want to know where to get a shower, where to get food. They want help walking their dogs, playing with their kids.”
Then, “A few days in, they want to talk about their feelings. People want to talk about their frustration over little things, like they are not getting a warm-enough shower.”
Whether a therapist, friend, or family member is listening, people want to feel validated about how they are feeling, therapists said. Hamilton recalled a woman at the evacuation center who told her: “I’m not a crier, but I can’t stop crying.” She was in community leadership roles, and the reversal, of needing help instead of giving it, was difficult for her to accept, Hamilton said. Hamilton assured her that crying was normal, telling her: “We’ve been through the scariest days.”
Humor might help. One woman fretted that she hadn’t gathered the right belongings when she had to evacuate quickly. Hamilton teased her: “You didn’t evacuate right?” That got a laugh. Another man joked: “People have told me my whole life I should see a therapist. Now might be the time.” Hamilton has heard a lot of “I should have” and tells people to ease up on themselves.
“All kinds of emotions get triggered by events like this,” said Jeffrey Katzman, MD, a psychiatrist and director of the Silver Hill Academy for Research and Education in New Canaan, Connecticut. He grew up in Pacific Palisades and went to school there. Long-distance, he’s helping family members who had to evacuate and are missing important medical equipment. “There’s sadness, there is numbness. It’s important to honor those feelings and have someone to listen.”
Moving Forward, What to Expect in Recovery
While Katzman said it’s important to honor the range of emotions of someone who's been through a wildfire, “you don’t want to get stuck there. It’s important to keep moving.” One way to do that, he said, is to regain structure in one’s life. He advises those affected by wildfires to plan, as best and quickly as possible, how they’ll work, where they will live. “Structure helps to engender a sense of hope, meaning, and a sense of the future. It takes us away from living in the loss and trauma.”
The community that helps people recover in the short term can also help in the long term, said Jennifer Gray Thompson, MPA, CEO of afterthefireusa.org, a California nonprofit that reaches out to communities after fire disasters. It was formed in 2017, after a series of deadly wildfires in Sonoma and Napa counties. She lived through one, grateful her family’s home survived, although feeling somewhat guilty about that at first. “The number 1 thing you can do for your mental health is create community, even if you are displaced,” she said.
She acknowledges her own struggles with mental health after the wildfire. When she had a business lunch with a friend who helps first responders, the friend said: “We are going to give you a plan for your mental health.” She now offers a list of possible activities that help, including art therapy, equine therapy, and a yoga swing (which she got). Playing it forward – helping others who have been through the disaster once someone affected is ready to do that – is healing, she said. “It’s dramatic how much it helps people.”
Understandably, first responders and those who lost loved ones are likely to have a worse time, long-term, than others, Hwong said. The mental health services that are plentiful just after the fires will likely decline over time, so experts advised finding a community group or other support group to continue to get that support, or to find a therapist for long-term help.
For those who didn’t talk to – or trust – their neighbors before, it might be time to change things. When Hwong analyzed the California Health Interview Survey, “We did find that people with high levels of social cohesion – those who trust their neighbors, for instance – those factors were protective in terms of extreme weather events.”
“You are never the same after,” Gray Thompson said. “But you can be happy again.”
