Wildfire Evacuations Spell Difficulties for Disabled, Elderly Residents

The wildfires that have spread throughout Los Angeles have, thus far, affected more than 20,000 structures and have forced approximately 180,000 people to evacuate from their homes. However, evacuation is often a struggle for those who are physically incapable or have significant struggles with moving easily. This gap in health care could spell issues as natural disasters continue to ravage different parts of the country.

During natural disasters, evacuation orders and warnings are often a means of protecting people from severe injury or death due to the unpredictable weather. The Los Angeles Fire Department had given out evacuation orders as early as January 7 to help give residents as much time as possible to flee to safety from the, at the time, uncontrolled fires.¹ However, for people with disabilities or with limited mobility, these evacuation orders are hard to abide by.

According to NBC News,² most of the 25 residents who were confirmed to have died during the fire were either aged 65 years or older or had a physical disability that made evacuation near impossible. There were 2 victims of the fires who were diagnosed with cerebral palsy and 1 with a leg amputation that were not able to evacuate without emergency assistance. These victims are a sign of a lack of planning and assistance for those who are most vulnerable.

The quick development of wildfires can make it hard for vulnerable populations to get the help that they need when evacuating | Image credit: MyPhotoBuddy - stock.adobe.com

Preparing to address the needs of disabled people during a national emergency can require multiple steps and preparation that some people do not have time or access to accomplish. FEMA’s guide for people with disabilities preparing for evacuation³ includes recommendations to stay informed, consider transportation, include others in the plans, and building an emergency kit. However, in the cases of those with disabilities, planning for medical needs can be more involved than simply grabbing a prescription bottle from a nightstand. Assistive technologies, such as oxygen masks or hospital beds, are harder to transport for those who require those technologies to live.

Response and preparedness may not be up to the needs of people with disabilities during natural disasters and emergencies, according to the CDC.⁴ Access barriers to effectively communicating with people with disabilities or helping them can include a lack of effective communication through either visual aids or hearing aids, transportation being limited, shelters not being accessible to those with disabilities, or environments in general not being accessible, such as assistance technologies relying on electricity.

With these potential areas of oversight for those who are already vulnerable, it is imperative to think of means by which to close the gaps. Emergency managers in California emphasized the need for social resources to give comprehensive training for all residents so that they understand the information and are able to act accordingly.⁵ This could also help to foster community engagement in making sure that everyone in the community is protected. However, they also acknowledged that addressing transportation inadequacies to help those in all areas would require more institutional support and strengthening of infrastructure to improve existing networks of transportation.

Solutions, the emergency managers said, could be driven through the use of technological tools that improve resource allocation through creating specific evacuation zones for each neighborhood or enlisting the community to check in on those who are vulnerable in the area to make sure that they’ve been evacuated safely. Although the infrastructure around evacuating vulnerable populations is still lacking, this community effort could provide a temporary solution to ensuring the safety of those who need help in the neighborhood.

More reliable solutions to helping vulnerable populations during emergencies, whether it be through evacuation or providing resources to keep them healthy, is imperative in the future, despite temporary solutions like community support. The victims of the California wildfires speak to a particular susceptibility of disabled and elderly people to natural disaster, whether it be from a lack of understanding of the risk or the inability to get the care that they need to evacuate. Funding for infrastructure improvements, including improved communication of evacuations and more easily accessible evacuation methods, should be the forefront of policymakers’ priorities as the country thinks about natural disaster response.

References

1. Palisades fire. Los Angeles Fire Department. Updated January 16, 2025. Accessed January 16, 2025. https://lafd.org/news/palisades-fire-0
2. Burke M, Kreutz L. What we know about the victims killed in the California wildfires. Updated January 16, 2025. Accessed January 16, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-wildfires-victims-rcna186989
3. 6 ways people with disabilities can prepare for evacuations. FEMA. July 22, 2022. Accessed January 16, 2025. https://www.fema.gov/blog/6-ways-people-disabilities-can-prepare-evacuations
4. Emergency preparedness and disability inclusion. CDC. 2024. Accessed January 16, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/disability-emergency-preparedness/about/index.html
5. Ermagun A, Thompson D, Vahedifard F, Silver RC. Emergency managers’ challenges with wildfires and related cascading hazards in California. J Environ Manage. 2025;374:124008. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.124008