As “giant clouds of smoke” filled the sky, Garrett Olmsted and his family evacuated their home in La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles.
“That was just five days of not knowing what was going to happen to your house,” said Olmsted, a junior in the Questrom School of Business. “That’s terrifying.”
The Los Angeles wildfires claimed 25 lives, destroyed more than 12,000 buildings and structures and prompted the evacuation of more than 160,000 people since they began on Jan. 7, according to NBC News.
Back on campus, Olmsted said he still fears the unpredictability of the fires back home.
“You never know, it’s just a tiny little fire that can spread in the wind really easily,” Olmsted said.
Olmsted is one of many at Boston University with ties to the LA area, which is still recovering from the Palisades and Eaton wildfires.
Nathan Phillips, an Earth and environment professor at the College of Arts and Sciences, said the fires were a result of extreme drought, powerful windstorms and the broader effects of climate change.
“Any fire requires some ingredients,” Phillips said. “There’s got to be a fuel, there’s got to be some oxygen and there’s got to be [an] ignition, and all of the ingredients are there in a very extreme manner.”
Phillips said the devastation “hits very, very hard,” as their friend from high school living in Altadena “lost everything but their lives” in the fires.
“It’s the first person that has been really close to me that is now essentially a climate migrant, a refugee from a climate disaster,” Phillips said.
Freshman Clark Demarest, who has relatives living in the LA area, said seeing the news was “harrowing.”
Demarest said his great uncle, who lives in the affected area, refused to evacuate despite the danger.
“That’s a really distressing situation to hear about, especially when a loved one of yours is sort of acting in ways that you don’t think would be best for their self-preservation,” Demarest said.
Olmsted said while he was lucky, others weren’t as fortunate, such as his close friend in Altadena who had lost her home.
“We had so many different memories there, and it was all gone,” Olmsted said. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of her entire life is gone.”
Michelle Amazeen, associate dean of research at the College of Communication, was in LA for a work trip when the fires broke out.
“The sky had this ominous orange haze to it,” Amazeen said. “Driving around, you could just see this giant cloud of smoke emanating from different areas. It was really scary.”
Amazeen said she had to cut her trip short, leaving two days earlier than planned.
“I got to leave. I just feel so badly for the people who can’t just pick up and leave,” she said. “This is their everyday lives, their schools, their libraries, their churches, their synagogues. Many of them [are] gone. I feel lucky.”
For some students and faculty, the fires were a call to action.
Sophia Abiera, a freshman from Orange County, spent her winter break volunteering at the Filipino Migrant Center in Long Beach, sorting clothing and resources for fire victims.
“It was really nice to see everyone from my local community come together and support the people that were affected,” Abiera said.
The university has also stepped in to help students impacted by the fires.
According to BU Today, Dean of Students Jason Campbell-Foster said his office is available to provide emergency funding to assist students with travel back to campus and to replace essential items, such as clothing and laptops.
The emotional aftermath of the fires lingers, especially for those with personal connections to the devastation.
“I’ve been talking to my friends who lost their houses every day, checking up with them to make sure they’re okay,” Olmsted said. “That kind of brings you back to it, but distracting myself has been the best method.”
