LOS ANGELES — Seven months after the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, many families are still living in temporary housing, schools are adjusting to the loss of students, and residents are grappling with more than the logistics of rebuilding their homes. For many, the emotional debris of the disaster lingers on.
“Most people will get to the other side of this,” said Sheila Thornton, Clinical Director at Foothill Family, a nonprofit mental health organization serving the San Gabriel Valley. “But you don’t forget it. You’ll take pieces of it that you keep with you always.”
Thornton, who joined Foothill Family in 1985 as a contract social worker, responded to her first major after the October 1993 Altadena wildfires. Three months later, Los Angeles was hit by the 6.7-magnitude Northridge earthquake, which killed at least 57 people.
In the aftermath, Foothill Family received a FEMA grant to study the mental health impact of those events and developed expertise in trauma long before trauma-informed care became common practice.
“Experiencing a traumatic event impacts you physically, emotionally, behaviorally, and cognitively,” Thornton said. “You can’t sleep, you snap at people, you can’t focus or make decisions.”
The impact of this trauma comes at a particularly bad time for survivors. Homeowners must make time-sensitive, complicated, important decisions, like whether to accept debris removal through federal or county programs or wait to wait for insurers. Thornton said these choices can feel impossible when concentration and memory are impaired, both of which are common effects of trauma in days, weeks, and months following the event.
For renters and homeowners who lost housing and cannot afford to remain in their neighborhoods, their children are now in new classrooms without their friends. Parents have shared with Thornton that younger children express symptoms like more intense nightmares and more acute separation anxiety.
It’s not uncommon, Thornton said, for older students who once handled two hours of homework to now struggle to finish much shorter assignments. Foothill Family clinicians are working with schools to temporarily scale back academic expectations so children can experience success rather than repeated frustration.
For adults, survivor’s guilt is common. As in many natural disasters, there are cases in Altadena where entire blocks were destroyed except for a single home. Thornton said those residents can carry a tremendous amount of guilt even as they help displaced neighbors. Others report irritability, sleeplessness, and reliance on alcohol or drugs to cope. Some cannot remember digital passwords or track paperwork deadlines, even as banks, insurers, and government agencies require rapid decisions.
Peer-reviewed research confirms the depth and persistence of wildfire trauma. A 2021 scoping review found that among adults exposed to wildfires, probable PTSD rates were as high as 60 percent at three months post fire, according to one study reviewed. At 18 months post-fire, the rate of probable PTSD in adults declined to between 10 and 13 percent. Among children and adolescents, moderate to severe PTSD symptoms affected 9 to 12 percent at six months, and 27 to 37 percent at one year post-fire.
The study reflects a growing focus on the effects of PTSD, which were less understood in the early 1990s. Thornton recalls presenting to a PTA group after 1993 and hearing a mother describe her daughter’s unexplained rash. The family had never shared with doctors that they lost their home in the fire. “They did not make the connection,” Thornton said, illustrating how little the public, and even physicians at that time, understood trauma’s hidden effects.
Like many natural disasters, wildfire trauma is uniquely persistent because the threat recurs seasonally. Research shows that anticipatory anxiety and eco anxiety can compound distress, especially among youth. Thornton noted that even seeing neighbors rebuild can trigger survivors who remain displaced or who are still fighting with insurers. Group text chains meant to provide support can become overwhelming when messages and reminders of loss arrive around the clock.
Foothill Family’s response includes expanding school-based programs this year to adjust academic expectations and offer counseling for children who show regression, nightmares, or aggression.
Thornton believes that mental health preparedness should accompany physical evacuation plans. Families, she said, can talk through safety plans, assemble go bags for reassurance, and learn ahead of time how trauma can affect sleep, concentration, and mood. “We need to teach our communities that trauma reactions are normal responses to abnormal events,” she said.
Based on her 40 years of experience, Thornton said most survivors will recover. However, they will likely not be the same as before the fire. She noted that the loss of a home is also the loss of history. For some kids, the fire led to the loss of a school, a neighborhood, and a set of friendships that formed the core of daily life. “It’s not a quick rebuild,” she said. “And we have to get through that profound sadness.”
Yet, in that process, Thornton said, is a chance to gain wisdom and a clearer sense of what matters to an individual. “The silver lining is, ‘What comes out of the ashes?’ Maybe you develop new friendships. Maybe you recognize how valuable family is. Maybe you realize what it is that you really need to be happy,” she said.
As part of ongoing response and recovery efforts to Los Angeles-area wildfires, Direct Relief provided Foothill Family with $100,000 to expand mental health services, school-based programs, and support for fire-displaced children and families.
