As California state and federal agencies lag in their response to the widespread wildfires that erupted this week in Los Angeles, a network of grassroots organizations and small businesses have launched their own disaster relief efforts – from coordinating overnight evacuation services to delivering essential supplies to victims and frontline workers.
After the fires began burning, the worker-owners at All Power Books decided on Tuesday night to convert the leftist bookstore cooperative into a warehouse for emergency resources.
Over the next 48 hours, residents all over the city packed the community space with box after box of canned food, masks, blankets, sleeping bags and toiletries. Organizers transported supplies to survivors at different churches and evacuation shelters; they delivered bottled water and snacks to firefighters, many of whom are serving out a sentence as they battle the blazes.
“We’ve already seen how crucially underprepared the city government is in dealing with social service,” said Savannah Boyd, a co-founder of All Power Books, which is based in the West Adams neighborhood.
“We knew we were going to have to start organizing for mutual aid.”
The bookstore’s central location in south LA and proximity to the I-10 freeway, Boyd said, made it an ideal fit for a centralized “donations hub” where donors and mutual aid groups can coordinate supply dropoffs and deliveries.
By Thursday afternoon, Boyd said the bookstore had to stop accepting donations, as deliveries have maxed out its storage capacity.
Fueled by ferocious Santa Ana winds, the series of blazes that tore through Los Angeles county on Tuesday and Wednesday burned more than 30,000 acres of land and killed at least 10 people. The Palisades and Eaton fires, which destroyed more than 10,000 structures, were both among the five most destructive fires in California history. Other fires spread in Woodley, Lidia and Sunset. More than 180,000 people were ordered to evacuate.
Many mutual aid drives have emerged from a deep frustration with elected officials. Months before these deadly fires, the city cut the fire department’s budget by $17.5m while bumping the police department’s budget by $126m.
“The city started off this chain of events,” said Howie Galper, a lead organizer of the political group the People’s Struggle San Fernando Valley. “The politics of LA is to ignore the people, and this is the end result.”
The People’s Struggle functions as a “grassroots 911 dispatch” center, Galper said. Donations totaled more than $2,500, which organizers used to secure materials requested by evacuation shelters, such as toys for children or sanitary products for women. People can also donate their own supplies at various dropoff locations in the San Fernando valley. The group typically operates with fewer than 20 core members, Galper said, but more than 100 volunteers have joined since the fires.
In addition to the dispatches, the People’s Struggle also operates a 24-hour hotline for victims looking for evacuation rides. A network of drivers across the greater LA area, Galper said, has transported more than 40 people out of the Pacific Palisades, Eaton and West Hills.
A host of other LA-based community groups are also spearheading mutual aid efforts.
It’s Bigger Than Us, a Black-led non-profit based in Inglewood, delivers water and resources to first responders while also running a distribution hub. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network is raising money for immigrant workers afected by the fires. Lagartijas Climbing Crú, a collective of Black, Latino, Asian and Indigenous rock climbers, created a crowdsourced spreadsheet to connect people with evacuees who need supplies including blankets and clothes.
Related: ‘It feels apocalyptic’: Californians on the loss and devastation from LA wildfires
“We know that minorities are usually the first ones affected by disasters but have the hardest path to getting back up,” said Lagartijas founder Anuardi J Cantre Santiago.
More than a dozen LA restaurants, including Oy Bar in Studio City and Teleferic Barcelona in Brentwood, are offering free meals to evacuees. The South LA Cafe is providing free groceries. The charity Baby2Baby has provided more than 1m emergency supplies, including diapers and formulas, for displaced children and families.
Pasadena Human, which is accepting donations, has been evacuating and housing animals injured and displaced by the fires. The shelter has taken in more than 100 animals for emergency boarding.
To facilitate direct donations to evacuees, GoFundMe has a centralized hub with all verified fundraisers related to the wildfires, as well as an annual Wildfire Relief Fund that dispenses cash grants to victims.
Other fundraisers include the Los Angeles fire department’s wildfire emergency fund, the Eaton Canyon Fire Relief and Recovery Fund and the California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Recovery Fund.