By Phoenix Tso
This article was first published by the nonprofit newsroom LA Public Press on Jan. 14, and is republished here with permission.
For those concerned about air quality in the coming days — for yourselves and for your neighbors — pick up some N95 masks from Mask Bloc LA or from an LA Public Library branch. For a comprehensive list of volunteer opportunities and donation needs, check out this spreadsheet maintained by Mutual Aid LA, as well as LA Public Press’ roundup.
Andrew Borquez lives in an encampment in Van Nuys by the 405 freeway. On Friday night, he could see the flames from the Palisades Fire on the Santa Monica Mountains.
“ It was extraordinary to watch from where I’m at with a clear vantage point of the mountain hilltop, how they held the line all through the night,” he said. “Not one flame jumped that hill.”
Borquez worked in the late 2000s as a firefighter while incarcerated at a fire suppression camp in Norco, Calif. A couple smaller fires broke out recently in the encampment where he lives. He was also worried about the Hurst Fire — now 95% contained — because it is close to where his grandparents live in Newhall.
With increased wind speeds this week comes a fresh wave of fear around fires –– a situation that leaves people living outdoors vulnerable.
“We’re in an incredibly industrial area,” said Carla Orendorff, an organizer with Aetna Street Solidarity, a group that grew out of a nearby encampment that the city has targeted with sweeps, arrests, and other violence.
“People here are exposed to all kinds of chemicals and particles in the air, regardless of a fire,” she said. “But with the fire and the winds, that’s been really kicked up.”
Orendorff said a lot of the encampment residents have asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Both conditions can make it harder for people to breathe in the event of extreme wind and fire. Last week, she said people requested nasal decongestants and inhalers. Organizers said they had to provide one person with a nebulizer, a powerful machine that turns liquid medicine into mist.
Then, on Friday night, people living in the encampment saw the flames from the Palisades Fire as it expanded. Orendorff said that the community came up with their own evacuation plan. They were prepared to rent a truck, pack up belongings, take them to a safer location, and give people rides out of the path of the fire.
LA County officials have sent multiple evacuation orders to people’s cell phones. The app Watch Duty, which collects official information about wildfires, received 1.4 million downloads in the few days since the fires started.
But unhoused people often don’t have access to phones. And even for those who do, the phone alerts aren’t mistake proof.
On Thursday afternoon, Genasys, the vendor behind the alerts, mistakenly issued an evacuation alert for those near the Kenneth Fire in Calabasas to 10 million people across LA County. The alert was sent out again in error on early Friday morning, leading officials to plead with residents not to disable their alerts.
Orendorff said that the unhoused people in the Van Nuys encampment knew better than to rely on official alerts or offers of help.
“The city isn’t going to come and warn a community of 75 people who live outside, even though the city is very well aware of how many people live here who have chronic conditions, who are disabled, who won’t be able to walk,” she said.
“It’s up to everyday people to organize themselves”
The Palisades and Eaton fires are among the most destructive fires in California history; thousands of people lost their homes in a single night.
Even those not directly in the path of the fires are breathing in the toxic air that has blanketed most parts of LA County as a result. In response, many mutual aid organizations added masks to their regular distribution materials or carried out special distributions.
Last week, an organizer with the LA Tenants Union’s Ktown Local handed out N95 masks in MacArthur Park to unhoused people, street vendors, elders, people with disabilities, and others visiting the park. The organizer showed people how to put on the N95 and mold to their faces for maximum protection. The advantage of an N95 is that it creates a tight seal that prevents people from breathing in toxic air.
Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid (PUMA) conducts outreach to encampments on the Westside multiple times a week. Because of the fires, volunteers added N95 masks to their supplies.
Harry Braddy lives at an encampment serviced by PUMA right off the 10 freeway. Last week, he and his neighbors saw large, slowly-drifting plumes of smoke in the distance from the Palisades Fire.
“[It’s] starting to feel better, but [it usually] gets worse in the morning,” said Braddy, who said he has pulmonary emboli, or blockages in his lungs.
Water Drop LA is a volunteer group that brings bottled water to Skid Row every Sunday. Members did extra outreach during the fires, handing out masks and goggles.
One recipient, Hawk, said he and his neighbors had to deal with the wind blowing lots of dust at them and tore holes in his tarp last week.
“ It wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but still dangerous to people whose health is waning. And everybody’s health is waning down here,” he said.
Water Drop volunteer Sade Kammen said that while the fires don’t threaten structures in Skid Row, “ what we do see downtown is an issue with air quality, and when people can’t go inside, they’re forced to breathe that in all day,” they said. “Getting them resources both to kind of mitigate the bad effects of air … but also just extra water and snacks and socks while people are kind of struggling is what we’ve been trying to do this week.”
The fires hit home for some mutual aid organizers who remember other local calamities.
Aetna Street Solidarity organizer Orendorff grew up in the San Fernando Valley and survived the Northridge Earthquake, which left her and her family unhoused for three months. She remembered how the community stepped up to share meals and look after each other’s children.
“That was probably the most radicalizing experience of my life,” she said. “It shapes my understanding of who will actually be there for you. It’s going to be your neighbors.”
And now with an unprecedented amount of community organizing around disaster relief, Orendorff sees this happening again.
“It’s up to everyday people to organize themselves to take care of each other,” she said.
Get involved:
Learn more about Aetna Street Solidarity here.
WaterDrop LA meets every Sunday to distribute water and other supplies to unhoused people in Skid Row. Learn more here.
Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid does outreach on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Their sister org Food for Comrades distributes groceries every Sunday. Learn more here.
Learn more about the LATU Ktown Local here.
LA Public Press is an independent newsroom that publishes news in support of a healthier Los Angeles. The non-profit does journalism that interrogates systems of power while supporting those trying to build more equitable and resilient communities.