Wildfire Emergency Management in Latinx Communities
Why disaster management components are key to ensuring Latinx communities are equitably supported in wildfire emergencies
Teresa Campos-Ortiz, (she/her/ella)
MPH Candidate 2024
A note on the use of 'hispanic', 'latino', and 'latinx':
The terms used on this page refer to those of Mexican, Central American, Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic, South American, and Spanish descent who may be of any race.
What is Disaster Management?
“They did not have signage in Spanish, they did not have bilingual staff and there was a police officer there for security. [My coworker] saw people sitting in the parking lot, afraid to go in and didn’t know what to do.” (Veitch, 2021)
Disaster management or emergency management has four components: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery (Coppola, 2015). Disaster risk management includes a wide range of actions, whose primary aim is to reduce the impacts of disasters (Le Cozannet et al., 2020). There are different definitions of disaster or emergency management. Some use mitigation and prevention interchangeably, one or the other, or both. This variability makes frameworks have four or five components. In order to be thorough, mitigation is included in this definition.
Prevention
Terms & Definitions
Prevention- Actions to avoid an incident or to intervene to stop an incident from occurring. Prevention involves actions to protect lives and property (FEMA, n.d.)
Mitigation- Includes activities to reduce the loss of life and property from natural and/or human-caused disasters by avoiding or lessening the impact of a disaster and providing value to the public by creating safer communities. Mitigation seeks to fix the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage. (FEMA, n.d.)
Preparedness- A continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action in an effort to ensure effective coordination during incident response. (FEMA, n.d.)
Response- Activities that address the short-term, direct effects of an incident. Response includes immediate actions to save lives, protect property, and meet basic human needs (FEMA, n.d.)
Recovery- Encompasses both short-term and long-term efforts for the rebuilding and revitalization of affected communities (FEMA, n.d.).
The Historic 2020 Oregon Labor Day Wildfires
The summer of 2020 was an unusually warm and dry summer and made conditions ideal for wildfires. Beginning September 7th, multiple fires ignited under critically hot and dry conditions and spread dramatically during multiple days of high winds, with 50-60 mph gusts (Oregon Office of Emergency Management, n.d). The unprecedented historic 2020 Labor Day wildfires brought to light the importance of emergency wildfire management. While the 2020 Oregon wildfires impacted many communities in the state of Oregon, communities of color faced and continue to face higher risk of living in wildfire prone areas. The devastating wildfire season is being worsened in the West by the most severe drought in a hundred years and heat waves that have shattered records across the Northwest (Colman, 2021). This is why it is critical to address all components of emergency management.
Facts & Figures
Latinos represent
18.9%
of the U.S. Population (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.)
37%
of Latinos live in wildfire risk areas (Colman, 2021)
It is estimated that by 2052, roughly 1 in every 4 Hispanics will live in areas with significant probability of wildfire (Muykens et al., 2022).
One study of Hispanic renters found that 66% do not have renters' insurance, 5% do not know, and 29% are insured (Hispanic Access Foundation, n.d).
Undocumented immigrants are particularly vulnerable to wildfires and pandemics (Méndez et al., 2020).
While 79% of Latino adults in the U.S. believe preparedness is a very important issue, only 39% of Latino households have taken any steps to prepare for an emergency (Hispanic Access Foundation, n.d).
Stories of People Affected by Wildfires
The Labor Day fires rapidly spread and affected many communities in Oregon.
The Latinx community in Southern Oregon towns were heavily impacted by wildfires.
Current Laws and Initiatives
“…They only had like two or three minutes to react because there was not time for them to gather anything.” (PRI’s The World, 2017).
Latinx communities on the United States West Coast have had inadequate wildfire emergency management. Climate change has accelerated the occurrence of wildfires. In fact, wildfires in the western United States burn six times the acreage they did 45 years ago (Méndez, 2022). It is critical that Latinos are included in each component of disaster management (i.e. mitigation/prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery). Failure to do this puts lives in danger due to summers becoming longer and hotter, creating conditions in which wildfires thrive. Within the last few years, states like Washington, California, and Oregon have passed laws or have created bills on wildfire emergency management including providing methods to support their Latinx populations.
Washington State
In 2021, Governor Inslee of Washington State, signed into law a bill on forest health and wildfires. This bill will provide $125 million dollars every two years for wildfire response, accelerate forest reforestation, and support community resilience (Associated Press & King 5 Staff, 2021). Part of the funding from this bill will go towards supporting community resilience, which is important given that many wildfire emergency and prevention efforts don’t reach many Latino residents because of the lack of language access, as well as institutional and socioeconomic barriers. (Washington Department of Natural Resources, 2021). There was also a newly formed partnership between local organizations and state agencies. The new partnership will provide capacity to local organizations who are leading community resilience work and to implement wildfire preparedness and recovery projects, including Spanish-language fire assessments, defensible space, and translation services (Washington Department of Natural Resources, 2021).
Oregon
In 2021, Senate Bill 762 was passed and signed into law. It will provide more than $220 million to help Oregon modernize and improve wildfire preparedness through three key strategies: creating fire-adapted communities, developing safe and effective response, and increasing the resiliency of Oregon’s landscapes (Oregon Department of Forestry, n.d.). According to Senate Bill 762, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management is to update its statewide emergency plan and can include wildfire risk mitigation efforts and evacuation planning (O.R. Legis. Assemb, 2021).
California
In 2018, Assembly Bill 1877 was enacted into law. In part this was due to inadequate language access to emergency information experienced by Latino population in Ventura and Santa Barbara County during the 2017 Thomas fire. The bill provides state resources to counties to help translate emergency information and made some disaster related grants contingent upon the county government providing information in the most commonly spoken language other than English (Méndez et al., 2020). This law is a significant step forward considering some Latinx community members may speak a language other than English or Spanish, such as indigenous languages.
Local rights groups and environmental organizations continued to lobby for change, and in 2018 Senate Bill 160 was enacted into law. This legislation requires counties to engage vulnerable populations when updating emergency plans to ensure that local disaster preparedness and response activities (i.e., alerts, communications, evacuations and sheltering) are culturally competent and meet diverse needs (Méndez et al., 2020).
U.S. Federal Government
At the government level there is also some change that is happening in regard to wildfire prevention, preparedness, and response. In the summer of 2022, the White House announced that it launched multiple simultaneous initiatives to enhance prevention, preparedness, and response including the following: strengthening wildfire response capabilities, providing historic levels of funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to reduce wildfire risk, and increase community resilience to wildfires (The White House [WH], 2022). In late summer of 2021, President Biden announced September as National Preparedness Month. The President encouraged Americans to take steps to prepare for natural and human-made threats to ensure all communities are ready for an emergency (The White House, 2022). This initiative and addition of national preparedness month are important steps forward.
Summary of the Wildfire Emergency Management in Latinx Populations
“I think the number one thing is outreach and engaging the community. We should not wait for individuals to come to us when the disaster is already happening. We need to be more preventive.” (PRI’s The World, 2017).
Wildfire Hazard Vulnerability
Wildfires impact many communities each year throughout the Western United States, but communities of color face higher risk of living in wildfire prone areas. Researchers created a socio-ecological approach for characterizing fire vulnerability and applied it to more than 70,000 census tracts across the United States (Davies et al., 2018). They found that wildfire vulnerability is spread unequally across race and ethnicity, with census tracts that were majority Black, Hispanic, or Native American experiencing 50% greater vulnerability to wildfire compared to other census tracts.
Latinx communities on the United States West Coast have had inadequate wildfire mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Research suggests that ethnic and racial minorities are more vulnerable due in part to, cultural and language barriers, distrust of warning messengers (e.g., government authority), lower perceived risk from emergencies, preference for particular information sources (e.g., friends and family), and lack of preparation (Bethel, Burke, & Britt, 2013).
Special attention should be given in order to better enhance emergency management including preparation and recovery. For example, vulnerable populations, such as Latinx should be considered during the implementation of wildfire emergency management given higher risk for living in wildfire prone areas in order to reach all who may be at risk and are reached in a manner that is appropriate.
Inaccessible Recovery Assistance for Migrant, Immigrant, and/or Undocumented Latinos
Research suggests that undocumented Latinos experienced more limited access to support and recovery resources (Dominguez & Yeh, 2018) during and after the 2017 wildfires in California’s Ventura and Sonoma counties. Limited access to support is due, in part, to some undocumented Latinos being unable to take advantage of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) cash assistance programs because of FEMA’s citizenship and immigration requirements. One researcher notes that systemic racism, cultural norms regarding US citizenship, and assumptions about who is a “worthy disaster victim” blind policymakers and disaster relief organizations to the needs of undocumented Latina/o and Indigenous migrants (Méndez, 2022). Sonoma County, California wildfire Latino residents were not alone in receiving federal assistance during the 2017 fires. In fact, during the 2020 historic Oregon wildfires, many Latino residents also struggled or did not receive federal assistance. Local Latino community organizations came and responded by assisting other community members.
Recommendations for Wildfire Management in Latinx Populations
The people most effective at reaching the most vulnerable are the people who are deeply embedded in the community like these organizers, she said. “They are so closely connected to the issues because they are the community. So when crisis hits, they are the first responders. They are the ones to give people information resources to organize folks.” (Veitch, 2021)
The wildfire emergency preparedness and response for Latinos should be given equal importance as any other community. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case, especially in natural disasters, like wildfires. Consideration should include prompt communication of information in the most spoken language. Culturally-specific methods should be taken.
When coordinated responses between public health officials and emergency response teams are established and have preexisting relationships, successful coordinated responses can happen, such as during the 2007 San Diego fires (Siddiqui et al., 2014).
The following list are recommendations for enhancing emergency management in Latinx communities:
Integrate factors related to race, culture, and language into risk communication, public health training, measurement, coordination, and policy at all levels (Andrulis et al., 2007).
Researchers found that at least four intervention priorities for California and across the United States: engaging diverse communities in all aspects of emergency planning, implementation, and evaluation; mitigating fear and stigma; building organizational cultural competence; and enhancing coordination of information and resources (Andrulis et al., 2011).
Specific considerations should be taken into consideration so that quick, timely information is given out accordingly. (Hispanic Access Foundation, n.d)
Reach Latinos through the media channels they rely on most (Torres et al., 2016)
Co-creating safe cultural spaces with leaders within cultural communities (Ford, 2021).
Languages spoken
Risk perception
Trusted sources of information
Traditional family roles and relationships
Rituals for grieving and death
Acceptable forms of communication
By incorporating the recommendations above, agencies and organizations can enhance the way the Latinx population is supported within all components of emergency management during wildfires.
Resources & Toolkits
This website provides resources with steps you can take to prepare for wildfires, staying safe during, and returning after a wildfire.
View FEMA and AdCoucil's PSA on urging communities to 'Prepare to Protect'
View Spanish video
View English video
Related Pages
The pages below explore topics within vulnerable populations. Click on the pages below for more information.
References
Andrulis, D. P., Siddiqui, N. J., & Purtle, J. P. (2011). Integrating Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities Into Planning for Disasters: The California Experience. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 5(3), 227–234. https://doi.org/10.1001/dmp.2011.72
Andrulis, D. P., Siddiqui, N. J., & Gantner, J. L. (2007). Preparing Racially And Ethnically Diverse Communities For Public Health Emergencies. Health Affairs, 26(5), 1269–1279. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.26.5.1269
Associated Press & King 5 Staff. (2021, April 11). Washington State Senate passes Bill to prevent and fight wildfires. king5.com. https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/wildfire/washington-state-senate-passes-house-bill-1168-wildfire-prevention/281-57f2c195-4d0f-4be1-aec9-de81a4bfcada
Bethel, W. J., Burke, C. S., & Britt, F. A. (2013). Disparity in disaster preparedness between racial/ethnic groups, Disaster Health, 1(2). 110-116, https://doi.org/10.4161/dish/27085
Colman, Z. (2021). Wildfires threaten all of the west - and one group more than others. POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/06/wildfires-latino-threat-498273
Coppola, D. P. (2015). Introduction to International Disaster Management. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2015.
Davies, I, P., Haugo, R, D., Robertson, J, C., & Levin, P. S. (2018). The unequal vulnerability of communities of color to wildfire. PloS One, 13(11). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205825
Dominguez & Yeh (2018). Social justice disaster relief, counseling, and advocacy: the case of the Northern California Wildfires. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 33(2), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070.2018.1542593
Federal Emergency Management Agency. (n.d.). Glossary. https://training.fema.gov/programs/emischool/el361toolkit/glossary.htm#:~:text=Response%3A%20Activities%20that%20address%20the,and%20meet%20basic%20human%20needs.
FEMA. (2021. September 23). FEMA: Anuncio de Servicio Público de la campaña Listo/Ready, El mejor planificador [Video]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/t6FCxICxm48
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Ford, J. M. (2022). Building a Better Ark: The Potential of Engaging Cultural Thought Leaders and Addressing Power Differential in Authentic, Community-Driven Resilience Planning. The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies (pp. 1691–1708). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42462-6_118
Hispanic Access Foundation. (2022, July 13). Hispanic Access Foundation - Climate Change: Wildfires. Hispanic Access Foundation - Home. https://hispanicaccess.org/climate-change-wildfires
Jefferson Public Radio. (2020, September 25). Ashland restaurant is the ‘glue’ for a Latino community hard-hit by wildfires. Jefferson Public Radio. https://www.ijpr.org/wildfire/2020-09-25/ashland-restaurant-is-the-glue-for-a-latino-community-hard-hit-by-wildfires
Le Cozannet, Goneri & Kervyn, Matthieu & Russo, Simone & Ifejika Speranza, Chinwe & Ferrier, P. & Foumelis, Michael & Lopez, Teodolina & Modaressi, Hormoz. (2020). Space-Based Earth Observations for Disaster Risk Management. Surveys in Geophysics. 41(3). 10.1007/s10712-020-09586-5.
Many Latinos are struggling in California's wildfires, but Spanish-language information is scarce [Radio broadcast transcript]. (2017, October 12). PRI's The World. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A509517753/AONE?u=s1185784&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=d29cb03c
Méndez, M. (2022). Behind the Bougainvillea Curtain: Wildfires and Inequality. Issues in Science & Technology, 38(2), 84–90.
Méndez, M., Flores-Haro, G., Zucker, L. (2020). The (in)visible victims of disaster: Understanding the vulnerability of undocumented Latino/a and indigenous immigrants. Geoforum, 116, 50-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.07.007
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Veitch, A. (2021, August 6). Latinos in the West are twice as likely to be affected by wildfires. Science Friday. https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/latinos-in-the-west-are-twice-as-likely-to-be-affected-by-wildfires/
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