By Kathryn Stelmach Artuso
When Kat Merrick lost her home in the Ventura County Thomas fire of 2017, she immediately responded by helping others in need. Today, as the co-founder and executive director of The Local Love Project, she is working with nearly 160 volunteers to provide disaster relief and recovery support following the recent wildfires.
In the wake of such catastrophes, she addresses urgent needs, handing out hygiene kits, clothing and blankets — and then she moves on to recovery mode and case management.
Her organization, created three days after the Thomas fire erupted, collaborates with local businesses to gather needed items and then it distributes them via pop-up centers. She continues to send truckloads of supplies to organizations who are helping residents and businesses in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
In Ventura County, “We saw how fast some of the large organizations leave, and everyone’s on their own, and people still need this kind of support and help to get through recovery,” noting that the process of recovery can last from three to seven years.
For those who want to help, Merrick cautions against cleaning out closets to donate used clothing and other items in the wake of a disaster, which happened after the Mountain fire on November 6, 2024.
Within a few hours of the onset of the fire, the Camarillo Community Center was flooded with so many donations that the volunteers were unable to manage it all and sent it to the Salvation Army, which then gave out vouchers to families who lost their homes.
“It’s called the ‘disaster in the disaster,’ and we really need to reprogram ourselves,” Merrick said. “Everybody starts cleaning out their closet, and they do it with a good sense of wanting to help. But someone doesn’t need a used wedding dress or bikini after they just lost their home. … What they really need is a new t-shirt, a pair of sweatpants and sneakers, and a jacket if it’s cold.”
Instead of donating used clothing, she recommends donating gift cards to fire victims and legitimate non-profit organizations, especially pre-paid VISA cards, Target or Walmart cards, and restaurant gift cards. But be wary, she said, of people claiming to collect gift cards on behalf of fire victims.
One item in particular was an unexpected favorite among residents who had lost all their possessions. “The number one thing was a brand new throw blanket,” she said. “It’s so soft, and it’s like a little hug, you know? So we’ve learned that on every disaster, we make sure we’re stocked up on throw blankets.”
Emily Green Ellison, a tax attorney who lost her home in the 2017 Thomas fire, shared a photo of her daughter sitting on piles of trash bags filled with used clothing, which became a storage headache when they moved into a rented apartment.
“Eventually, what we felt like was everyone donated their used underwear and a chandelier, and then bought the firefighters a meal, and patted themselves on the back and moved on,” she said.
After losing her home in the Thomas fire, Ellison learned so much about coping with recovery that she started an online support group to aid those who lost their homes in the Woolsey fire of 2018. After six years she was about to shut it down, but then the Mountain fire struck and more people flooded to her forum for advice and assistance.
“When people ask how they can help, I say ‘office supplies and gift cards’ because that’s what they really need,” she said. “The day after the Thomas fire, I went to Target and bought clipboards, binder paper, and pens because my life was now scrutinized and documented.”
She highlighted the emotional toll of “decision-making fatigue,” when even the destroyed spices in the kitchen cabinet have to be catalogued for insurance purposes, and you have to decide who to hire to remove the debris, and whether you should work with an adjuster for your insurance claims.
She and Merrick both discourage residents from sifting through the ashes at their burned properties, because they could be impacted by the toxic environment. Even though her family took precautions and wore masks and goggles after the Thomas fire destroyed their home, Merrick’s son caught Valley fever and had to be hospitalized.
Whether to hire an insurance adjuster, often called a public adjuster, is a more complex matter.
If a fire victim is underinsured, Ellison does not recommend hiring an adjuster, who will take about 20% of the entire insurance payment in a transaction somewhat similar to a real estate agent.
For those who are adequately insured, she said insurance companies do not simply hand fire victims the money in an uncontested, straightforward fashion. Insurance payments are usually delivered to mortgage companies and placed in a non-interest bearing escrow account after much discussion and documentation. In this case, an adjuster could help with the negotiations and with the lengthy paperwork.
As for housing code upgrades, Ellison’s coverage for that was $20,000, but she wound up paying nearly $250,000 to meet the new requirements following the fire, including double-paned windows, larger water lines, and an indoor sprinkler system.
“Our property taxes doubled,” Ellison said. “The unfortunate reality is, at some point in all of this recovery, every single one of us got screwed multiple times.”
Ellison also warned that when the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods are making progress in rebuilding their homes, keep in mind that after the Thomas fire, “When homes were almost done, partiers came in and just trashed the places, and people would come in and steal anything of value during the construction.”
Other Camarillo residents who lost their homes in the recent Mountain fire encourage wildfire victims in Palisades and Altadena to attend town hall community meetings, sign up for social media groups that provide information and advice, and organize or attend social gatherings with affected neighbors.
“Go, even if the topic doesn’t seem sexy or interesting,” said Candy Simmons Lingl. “You will learn things you didn’t even realize you needed to know, and it is an opportunity to network with others in like circumstances.”
Alice Blois urges Los Angeles area fire survivors to find stable housing as soon as possible, even if that means purchasing a new home rather than rebuilding the old one.
“It has made a world of difference to be settled in again,” Blois said.
Documenting all of their destroyed belongings for insurance claims can be a long process, and several victims of the fires in Ventura County urged Los Angeles area residents to be proactive by opening their drawers and closets to take photographs of what they own.
After public attention wanes following the wildfires, Ellison hopes fire survivors will draw upon their internal store of resilience.
“There is a point of time where you just have to say, ‘I have to save myself. I have to be my own self-advocate,’” she said. “The state is not going to [rescue you]. There’s just this misconception that someone’s going to come in and save the day. And they’re not.”
“When people are sifting [through the ashes], it’s like they’re basically standing with one foot in the past and one foot in the present, and it’s difficult to say goodbye to the past, so I sympathize with that,” Ellison said. “But you just have to pick that foot up and put it in the present, because you can do a lot more good for yourself with two feet in the present.”