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When one UCLA student was forced to flee her apartment during the L.A. wildfires, she relied on a network of community support groups and mutual aid organizations to get the help she needed.
Though I have been a graduate student living in Los Angeles for two years now, I never felt further from home than when a cluster of destructive wildfires popped up in early January 2025. I grew up in rural upstate New York, and the closest I’d ever been to wildfires was when smoke from Canadian fires hundreds of miles north reached our town.
I have been a climate activist for much of my adult life, but I never imagined I would experience one of the most devastating climate disasters of our time firsthand. As someone with asthma, anaphylactic allergies, and other respiratory conditions, I could feel the impacts of the fires long before I could see the smoke and ash in the air. Consequently, my spouse, Luke, and I made the decision to leave our apartment not long after the fires started burning. We were fortunate to have loved ones living a few hours away who were able to give us a place to stay.
The decision to evacuate felt like a practical one. First, UCLA, where I am a student, had switched to remote learning for at least a full week. Second, we feared that we would be forced to abandon our car in gridlock traffic as countless Angelenos had to do as fires grew at unimaginably fast rates. And last, and most important, because I have airborne anaphylactic food allergies, I couldn’t risk the chance I’d be forced to stay in an evacuation center, where I might come into contact with my allergens and require emergency medical treatment. I also would be unable to safely eat most foods provided at these shelters.
Because my difficulty breathing was swiftly getting worse, we had to leave our apartment quickly. We scrambled to pack a bag with some clothes, medication, and other essentials, and we grabbed a few sentimental belongings we would be devastated to lose. At the time, we thought (and hoped) we wouldn’t need to spend more than a night or two away from Los Angeles.
However, over the next few days, the fires began spreading aggressively, moving closer and closer to our apartment, and we were unable to return as quickly as we had hoped. And though we were able to get by with the clothing we’d packed, we hadn’t been able to grab enough safe food for a longer-term displacement.
And truly, amid the stress of potentially losing all of our belongings, our housing, and the life we had built in Los Angeles, my partner and I could barely find the time and energy needed to buy food and prepare safe meals. Luke was commuting a total of five hours a day for work, and I was trying to recover from the health impacts of the fires and keep up on classwork. It was hard to imagine how we would safely make it through this devastating time, and I felt overcome with homesickness.
When a friend referred me to a resource for accessing free allergy-safe foods coordinated by Los Angeles mutual aid groups and nonprofits, I felt a sense of relief. I filled out a form explaining my circumstances, and within a day, a volunteer contacted me and connected me with various allergy-safe food resources. Days later, I received foods generously donated by allergy-safe brands like Love Me Gluten Free, BreadSrsly, and Hotgirlsauce. The volunteer also told me about local businesses and restaurants that could accommodate allergen-safe meals as needed. As a graduate student who largely depends on the university’s food resources, it was such a comfort to have help securing safe food, especially when I was spending extra money on air purifiers and refilling my inhalers.
When we eventually returned to Los Angeles, I still found it difficult to breathe. That’s when I learned of Mask Bloc LA, a mutual-aid group providing tens of thousands of free N95s to Los Angeles residents to keep them safe from the long-term effects of wildfire smoke. Mask Bloc began as an effort to distribute masks to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and was able to quickly pivot its focus to supporting wildfire recovery. My partner and I picked up masks to stay safe from the smoke, and the organizers even offered my partner, a teacher, extra masks to give to his students.
The resources that I benefited from are just a small part of a much larger network across Los Angeles. Like Mask Bloc, many mutual-aid efforts in Los Angeles existed before the fires. They were launched to address social issues like the housing crisis, immigration enforcement, racial justice concerns, and the criminalization of sex workers and survivors of sexual violence.
The city’s many nonprofits, mutual-aid organizations, and advocacy groups coordinated with local businesses and generous donors to rapidly provide shelter, food, hygiene products, clothes, and other basic necessities to all those impacted by the fires. GoFundMes and other fundraisers provided immediate financial support for those who were forced to abandon their homes without the luxury of packing up. Artists, musicians, and other creatives volunteered their time to hold fundraising events across the City of Angels to support relief efforts. Countless restaurants provided free meals to evacuees. My fellow law students and professors offered free legal support for wildfire survivors.
Through all this disaster and devastation, I witnessed — alongside the rest of the country — how the people of Los Angeles cared for one another. Climate disaster — and the displacement that comes with it — will only grow more common in the coming years. The World Bank anticipates as many as 216 million people being displaced by the climate emergency by 2050 — just 25 years from now.
Regardless of area code, climate change will ultimately reach us all in one way or another. As we face the ongoing climate emergency, we will have one another to depend upon. Los Angeles, like many communities across the country, has shown us the power of community organizing and mutual aid to care for all people impacted by disaster.
Time and time again, we see how those whose lives are devastated by wildfires adapt, take care of each other, and survive, even when the world is (literally) burning. Last year, in North Carolina and Florida, a strong network of informal and formal mutual-aid groups coalesced to respond to Hurricane Helene when federal and state disaster relief was delayed. In 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic led to unprecedented shutdowns, mutual-aid organizers supported immunocompromised and aging peoples in need, which will continue to be important as climate change fuels the spread of infectious diseases. And when Hurricane Sandy caused destruction and flooding on the East Coast, mutual aid organizations delivered supplies to the hardest-hit communities. Repeatedly, communities have cared for one another and helped each other survive.
The beauty of mutual aid is that there are so many ways to both give and receive support. You do not have to volunteer countless hours organizing on the ground to make a difference. You might donate supplies to mutual-aid groups to support communities impacted by disasters. Or, if you’re a small business owner, you might consider providing a space for displaced people to stay, or even just a free cup of coffee. If you have a special skill — as a therapist, lawyer, doctor, or other professional — you can offer a free consultation to those who are impacted by a disaster. And if you’re safe and able, giving money to support the organizers working on the ground can make a huge difference, no matter where you’re located.
Regardless of area code, climate change will ultimately reach us all in one way or another. As we face the ongoing climate emergency, we will have one another to depend upon. Los Angeles, like many communities across the country, has shown us the power of community organizing and mutual aid to care for all people impacted by disaster, regardless of race, age, health, ability, housing status, national origin, or any other aspect of identity. Mutual aid cares for us all, even those of us who never expected to be impacted by climate disaster. Even when you’re far from home and just trying to make it through grad school in one piece.
