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01/17/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 01/18/2025 10:40

Trauma from Los Angeles Fires Will Take a Village to Treat

Trauma from Los Angeles Fires Will Take a Village to Treat

Ellen DeVoe, BU expert, assesses the psychological toll on residents

A man walked away from his burning home in Altadena, Calif. earlier this month, one of more than 100,000 people displaced by fires ravaging Los Angeles and environs. "How people respond to the loss of their home and possessions in a natural disaster will depend on many things," says Ellen DeVoe, a School of Social Work professor. Elle Photo by AP/Jon Putman/NurPhoto

Public Health

Trauma from Los Angeles Fires Will Take a Village to Treat

Ellen DeVoe, BU expert, assesses the psychological toll on residents

January 17, 2025
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At least 27 dead, more than 100,000 displaced, an estimated $30 billion-and likely to climb-in insured property destruction: the toll of the Los Angeles fires overwhelms the public imagination. Therapists will need to treat many of the surviving individuals who will be traumatized by loss. But the most effective immediate help will likely come from the communities themselves, says Ellen DeVoe, founding director of the trauma certificate program at BU's School of Social Work.

DeVoe, a professor of clinical practice, says that rebuilding communities and reestablishing the rhythms of regular life will be the best short-term therapy for survivors. She also deems it important to understand exactly what's happened. "I would characterize the LA fires as a combination of natural- and human-caused catastrophe," she says. "Building in what we know are long-standing fire, flood, drought, etc., zones elevates risk, clearly."

The infernos have burned more than houses-they've destroyed homes, along with the memories and memorabilia that people accumulate around family milestones: marriages, graduations, births, family deaths, careers. What vast psychological injury has that caused, and how can so many traumatized lives be made whole again? DeVoe, also associate dean for academic affairs at SSW, gave BU Today her assessment.

Q&A

with Ellen DeVoe

BU Today: Is the trauma from losing one's home and possessions in a natural catastrophe different from other forms of trauma, in terms of the emotional and psychological blow?

DeVoe: How people respond to the loss of their home and possessions in a natural disaster will depend on many things, including their wealth and access to "recovery resources," whether and how quickly the community rebuilds, direct exposure to what are terrifying experiences of the fires-for example, did they evacuate ahead of time, just in the nick of time? Did they witness and experience the fire up close? Were they able to bring any important things and personal treasures, pets, etc., with them when they evacuated?

Experiencing this kind of catastrophe is distinct from other kinds of individual-level trauma, specifically interpersonal/familial violence, rape, sexual assault, and related trauma, because natural disasters happen to entire communities. With interpersonal trauma and violence, there is often stigma, secrecy, and shame, whereas with a natural disaster/catastrophe, it is a communal trauma, and community responses help people move forward. Nonetheless, grief and loss over the destruction or loss of one's home, sense of community and place, and severing of community and social networks can have devastating emotional, psychological, and developmental impact.

For kids, how they respond and recover will be partly connected to how their caregivers and important adults support and respond to them, and how quickly they can get back into important, shared, and daily routines-day care, school, friend and social activities. There are already important disenfranchised people and communities that cannot easily access official supports and who were already struggling with homelessness/housing insecurity, food insecurity, precarity in access to work and schools, etc. This disaster will compound these grave realities.

Official responses to natural disasters by government and other entities-e.g., FEMA, state and local resources, insurance companies-often make things worse and more traumatic and protracted for survivors. As we have seen in other disasters, notably Hurricane Katrina, official responses laid bare structural racism and discrimination, on top of the traumatic experiences and aftermath of the hurricane itself. The LA fires will exponentially tighten and worsen one of the most expensive and tight housing markets in the US and will be out of reach for lower-income and poor survivors.

BU Today: As devastating as the aforementioned losses are, some people are grieving loved ones killed in the fires. Presumably, that's a whole different level of trauma, requiring a different therapeutic approach?

DeVoe: When the death of loved ones is sudden, unexpected, violent, or traumatic, survivors can experience what's called traumatic grief, which can be distinct from the experience of grief and loss that happen in an expected developmental lifespan time frame, as when an elder who has been ill dies, or even when a younger person dies after long, chronic illness. The traumatic circumstances and nature of deaths in natural disasters and mass casualty events often make the grieving process even more complex.

For people who are survivors of early or other trauma, experiencing a catastrophe like the fires or other natural disaster can exacerbate already challenging circumstances. In disasters, survivors may experience guilt at not being able to save or reach loved ones, [or] trauma responses such as unwanted and disturbing images and dreams, etc., related to the death, and may have difficulty grieving because of the traumatic elements of the death. We are already hearing from survivors whose homes were spared, but their entire neighborhoods are gone. There are specific therapies that aim to support survivors dealing with traumatic grief that support and move through the traumatic aspects of the death and the tremendous loss. Access to these therapies is uneven and can be expensive. But survivors also are helped by rebuilding, spiritual connections and practice, and community/mutual aid supports.

BU Today: What kinds of therapies will be most effective in helping survivors?

DeVoe: Professional helpers and trauma researchers often anticipate and imagine that there will be a wave of demand for trauma-specific therapies in the aftermath of community and natural disaster catastrophes. However, as we witnessed in New York City in the weeks and months after the 9/11 attacks, this wave did not emerge. Trauma experts from all over the country descended upon NYC to train local practitioners in evidence-based therapies for PTSD and individual trauma. But many survivors will be resilient and are helped dramatically by rebuilding, reestablishing routines and rituals and social connections, and relying on family and community networks and relationships for support.

Many survivors will be resilient and are helped dramatically by rebuilding, reestablishing routines and rituals and social connections, and relying on family and community networks and relationships for support.
Ellen DeVoe

For folks who are struggling with traumatic stress responses, depression, anxiety, etc., there are more targeted therapies that can be effective in reducing troubling symptoms, supporting stabilization and functioning. But there are phases in the aftermath of disaster-so for the next while, crisis intervention and community stabilization are more central than more targeted, individual approaches.

People need to find or establish housing, food resources, income and jobs, schools, etc. Communities, governments, and systems need to step up to respond to the enormous needs. A critical question is whether rebuilding in fragile and disaster-prone areas-areas where fires, flooding, more extreme weather events are the norm or increasing because of climate change-should happen and, if so, how to protect communities or prevent similar, future devastation.

BU Today: Is there any precedent in the experience of therapists for such a massive, catastrophic event and trauma?

There is a long history of precedent, including recent catastrophes related to climate change, natural disasters, and mass casualties like the [California] Camp Fire in 2018, which killed 84 people. More recently, there have been the Maui fire in 2023, the Boulder fire in 2021, North Carolina floods, etc. A critical dynamic for therapists and other caregivers and first responders-EMTs, firefighters, healthcare professionals, teachers-when massive community catastrophes happen is the dual nature of the experience and exposure for these professionals. That is, while these professionals are trained to respond to and support others when disaster strikes, they and their families are dealing with their own personal and family situations in relation to the catastrophe.

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  • Rich Barlow

    Senior Writer

    Rich Barlow is a senior writer at BU Today and Bostonia magazine. Perhaps the only native of Trenton, N.J., who will volunteer his birthplace without police interrogation, he graduated from Dartmouth College, spent 20 years as a small-town newspaper reporter, and is a former Boston Globe religion columnist, book reviewer, and occasional op-ed contributor. Profile

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