Updated: January 22, 2025
Appeal Code: 6291
Situation:
Wildfires across Los Angeles County have surged overnight, prompting mandatory evacuation orders for over 150,000 residents with more than 700 people taking refuge in nine shelters, as powerful Santa Ana winds exacerbate the crisis. As of Wednesday, January 22, 2025, approximately 34,000 individuals are still under evacuation orders. California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency and LA County has declared a public health emergency, warning that smoke and particulate matter could pose immediate and long-term threats, and the National Weather Service issued “particularly dangerous” red flag warnings much of Los Angeles and Ventura counties and other parts of Southern California.
The Palisades Fire, first reported on Tuesday, January 7, has caused widespread destruction, and at least five additional fires have erupted since then, which now span more than 60 square miles, displacing more than 100,000 people. The impacts have destroyed nearly 16,000 structures and damaged an additional 2,000, including nine schools, and claimed at least 28 lives. Widespread power outages are affecting more than 4 million customers across Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties, causing food loss, school closures and road gridlock. With major freeways shut down, emergency response efforts face significant challenges.
Over 1,400 firefighters are battling the blazes, which are being fueled by extreme winds reaching 100 mph and persistently dry conditions. Crews are focusing solely on life safety and critical infrastructure protection, as strong winds and red flag warnings persist until Friday, and water shortages compound the crisis, with residents urged to conserve water to ensure sufficient pressure for firefighting.
California has secured both a federal disaster declaration and a Fire Management Assistance Grant from FEMA to provide aid for local governments and affected individuals. While these measures bring critical support for temporary housing and infrastructure repairs, officials caution that containment efforts remain difficult in the face of extreme winds, dry conditions and rapidly evolving fire behavior.
CWS Response:
CWS’ Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery team is monitoring the situation in impacted communities through our coordination with disaster response partners across the state. Our team has been monitoring the situation and receiving twice daily updates from CalFire, CalOES and FEMA officials. We are collaborating with the National VOAD network and lending our expertise under our leadership role on the California VOAD to the local Los Angeles County VOAD, ENLA and the Los Angeles County Long Term Recovery Group LARCRO. We are standing by to provide support in the form of CWS Kits and Blankets and have shared information about the CWS Kits Program with over 500 disaster response agencies. CWS will also provide technical assistance and information sharing with local partners, including our Covenant Members.
CWS EPRR staff are playing a key leadership role in establishing the Wildfire Resource HUB, which will have childcare, counseling, immediate material and financial resources, food, massage, music, therapy dogs and comfy spaces for people to relax while receiving services. We are have increased our capacity and response to temporary housing needs by allocating additional funds, staff time and resources to meet ongoing needs of individuals that have been displaced.
In collaboration with CWS local offices, EPRR has also assembled and distributed over 200 fire- and waterproof “Go Bags” with essential supplies for evacuation for newcomer families. CWS is also working to connect families with temporary housing. The EPRR team is supporting our CWS Orange County office to ensure they are receiving up to date information to be able to share with staff and clients in the disaster area. We have been able to provide temporary housing support to clients and are able to offer informational resources to immigrant populations in preferred languages and connect them to community resources.
CWS is committed to supporting affected immigrant communities, including unaccompanied children and their sponsors, by connecting individuals to resources and existing support structures. Your contributions ensure that we can provide critical and life-saving resources to our neighbors when it’s most needed and sustain that support long after the news has left headlines.
How to Help:
To support CWS emergency response efforts, donations can be made online to CWS’ 2025 California Wildfires Response or sent to Church World Service (P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515).
Please designate “Appeal Code: 6291”
We will continue to offer updates as this situation evolves. Follow CWS on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram for the latest information.