Paula's story
Living with fire
- Mitigation
- Preparedness
- Response
- Recovery
Mitigation
Paula is a single mom that lives in a mobile home in a rural community in the Sierra foothills. Mobile homes are an affordable housing option for many low-income families in California. Although they are particularly vulnerable to wildfires, they don’t receive much attention. Paula struggles to pay bills and keep food on her table. She does not have any money to protect her mobile home from a wildfire.
A Native American Tribe partnered with the State and local government to conduct cultural burning in the area. This practice removed so much vegetation and flammable materials from around Paula's home. A community-based organization partnered with philanthropy to upgrade some of her electrical wirings.
Preparedness
There has never been a major fire in Paula’s community, although the risk has always been there. She hasn’t received much information or guidance that she should do anything about the possibility of a fire event let alone recovering. Honestly, she has too much else to worry about right now.
The town conducted a Community Risk Assessment and determined that the mobile home community faced extremely high risk during a wildfire. The town partnered with a community-based organization to go to the community and speak with all the tenants about what they could do to protect themselves and be safe. They also offered go-bag supplies and connected her to alert systems. Paula feels prepared.
Response
The fire is coming right for the mobile home community, but Paula and many of her fellow residents don’t receive any notifications. Paula and her children have a traumatic experience evacuating at the last minute.
With the help of the community-based organization, Paula was signed up for the emergency notification system. She and her family left right away when the first warnings came out. They made it to a shelter staffed by trauma-informed counselors and support staff from local agencies and community organizations.
Recovery
Paula and her kids are staying with friends who are also struggling to pay their bills. There don’t seem to be any options to rebuild her mobile home.
A local community-based organization works with residents, architects, housing developers, and funders to build quick, affordable homes that serve Paula and her neighbors of the mobile home community. The home is designed and built to meet Paula and her family’s needs and there is a flexible design to expand the home as her family needs change and grow.
