Since multiple wildfires erupted in and around Los Angeles on January 7, tens of thousands of residents have been displaced or remain on evacuation watch, as fire-fanning winds threaten to continue. The Palisades and Eaton fires, among others, have killed 28 people and destroyed or damaged more than 16,000 structures—including destruction of the Los Angeles Public Library’s (LAPL) Palisades Branch Library. Several more libraries in evacuation or evacuation warning zones remain closed.
Amid the disaster, library systems, including Altadena (Calif.) Library District (ALD), Los Angeles County Library (LACL), and LAPL, are spearheading efforts to help community members as well as library staffers through fundraising and onsite support. The American Library Association (ALA) has also set up a relief effort through its ALA Disaster Relief Fund.
In addition to physical losses, community members are experiencing the mental and emotional toll of the crisis. Across the area, library workers have witnessed people using their facilities not only as a center for resources such as internet access and recovery information, but also simply a quiet space to cry and process losses, according to California Library Association President Genesis Hansen.
“Libraries can be a welcoming, safe, comforting space, a space where they can get critical, useful information that helps them through the recovery process,” Hansen says. “Or just check out a book. Or have books to read with their kids, to use it as learning or distraction, or entertainment, or just to pass the time. Whatever is needed.”
‘All hands on deck’
“You can get out of the elements, people come to charge devices, use the internet, utilize computers,” says ALD Director Nikki Winslow of libraries. “Many of the things that we’re providing to the community anyway are really essential when you don’t have a home.”
The LA County Library Foundation and Altadena Library Foundation have partnered to launch Connected Wellness, a donation campaign to raise money for internet access, school supplies, hygiene products, and other necessities for those impacted by the fires.
Both of ALD’s locations are closed, but remain intact despite nearby fires, according to Winslow.
Within LACL, four branches serve communities in evacuation warning areas (La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta Library, Live Oak, and Temple City). Dozens of staffers have been affected by the wildfires, with at least eight facing severe damage to or total destruction of their homes, according to LACL CEO and County Librarian Skye Patrick. Yet, she adds, local library workers continue to show up in the face of devastation, to help community members who visit the library as well as those in evacuation centers.
“It’s just been a really trying moment, and it’s required all hands on deck,” Patrick says. “We’re also trying to help people of the county and in all of the burn areas. But there’s never been a fire like this, so it’ll take us a long time to rebuild.”
LAPL, while working to provide resources for those impacted by fires, is also reeling from the loss of its Palisades branch, which burned down January 8, the second day of the fire that destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
Joyce Cooper, LAPL’s director of library branch services, says the community has just begun to come to terms with the loss of the Palisades branch, after the initial reaction of sheer shock and grief. The branch has served the community since 1929. It expanded multiple times over the decades to meet the growing needs of its patrons, most recently in 2003.
“Now that we don’t have a physical building, we still have that community, and the Friends have already reached out to see how they can help,” Cooper says. “Although the physical building was destroyed, the community and the work that branch was doing will continue. We’re just going to have to figure out what that looks like going forward.”
The Library Foundation of Los Angeles has set up a recovery fund for donations to the Palisades branch, as well as a support fund for LAPL staff who lost their homes in the fires, including two Palisades branch staffers.
Lending support
Among efforts to uplift families impacted by the fires, ALD staffers are working with kids ages 5–17 whose schools are closed, at free day camps hosted by LA County Parks and Recreation.
Since the fires began, LACL locations have hosted FEMA representatives, so fire victims can connect with relief officials in person. Branches have also distributed free N95 masks to protect residents’ against poor air quality caused by smoke, and partnered with Small Business Administration representatives to assist affected business owners.
At evacuation shelters, library staffers from across the area are helping those affected access necessities like water, internet access, reading materials, and charging stations.
Cooper notes that, in the coming weeks as community members navigate assistance forms and access to accurate, timely information, multilingual staff at LAPL libraries will be able to assist.
The community’s generosity has been overwhelming, Hansen says, adding that monetary donations are most needed now rather than physical offerings—and the need won’t go away anytime soon.
“Remember that the need right now is immediate and urgent, but the recovery process is going to be long,” Hansen says. “There’s going to be lots of opportunities going forward, but think of this as a marathon, not a sprint.”
