When multiple wildfires broke out in Los Angeles in early January, International Medical Corps was very much there—staff members could clearly see the first fire, in the Pacific Palisades, from our office windows. These collective fires eventually burned a total of more than 16,000 homes, businesses and schools across 40,000 acres, displacing at least 200,000 people.
As part of our direct response, over the next month we deployed 58 medical and mental health professionals to deliver medical and mental health services to hundreds of displaced residents living in two regional shelters, as well as those seeking help at various community centers and distribution sites. We also distributed nearly 6,000 hygiene kits and 5,000 wound-care kits to people in need.
When the emergency phase of our response ended in mid-February, we stood down and sent our volunteers home. But that doesn’t mean there are no more people in need of help, which is why we’ve worked closely with the Red Cross as it has transitioned people from the temporary shelters it operated into more permanent housing. As this transition took place, we had staff members embedded in the shelters to help with the process and make sure that the Red Cross could connect people to existing healthcare systems in the city.
“When we move out of the acute phase of an emergency, we don’t provide medical care outside of the existing medical system, because we really want people to tap back into that system and we don’t want to take away resources from local community networks,” says Shira Goldstein, Deputy Director, Country Planning and Programs for the US.
Once the acute emergency phase came to a close, we entered the recovery phase and shifted our focus. We’re now helping staff members at federally qualified health centers (which help low-income and other vulnerable populations) and nonprofits that were themselves impacted by the fires, offering them grants to cover staff housing and other needs.
We’re also assessing the medium-term needs of the Los Angeles healthcare system.
“We’re looking at ways to leverage our expertise in training and capacity building while thinking through the lessons we learned from the LA fire response, so that we can help local organizations improve their emergency-management and readiness plans,” Shira says. Noting that we’ll be offering an initial training session to local organizations this summer, she explains, “Our goal is to include 30 organizations with street outreach teams that help people experiencing homelessness to access healthcare. We’ll update our training curriculum to look at hazard vulnerabilities and do a robust assessment of their gaps and their own lessons learned.”
Shira says that California is an important state for International Medical Corps—and not just because we’re headquartered here.
“California represents the frontline of a lot of complex emergencies,” including earthquakes, wildfires, extreme heat, drought and mudslides, Shira explains. “This disaster presented us with an opportunity to continue learning what emergencies look like in densely populated urban settings. It also has helped to deepen the relationships we have with local nonprofits and health centers. A lot of organizations were just not ready for this kind of emergency to take place in a city like LA—and now they know we’re here to help.”