9 Wildfire Preparedness Resources for People with Disabilities

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, there have been 47,120 fires this year that have burned 2,647,217 acres as of October 6, 2023.
Our Emergency Preparedness Working Group members have compiled information, resources, and their own experiences to create a wildfire preparedness resource for the disability community.
Emergency preparedness for wildfires is no different than preparing for other natural disasters, which means planning and preparing ahead of time are CRITICAL for your safety.
For more emergency preparedness resources, visit United Spinal’s Ready to Roll, in partnership with the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation.

Many are aware of the devastating wildfires in Hawaii. But did you realize that a total of 15 states currently report active large fires as of October 13, 2023?

In the case of a wildfire, people with disabilities must consider many aspects for their safety, including evacuation, transportation, loss of power, smoke inhalation, and needed supplies. Our Emergency Preparedness Working Group has come together to share their knowledge, experiences, and resources to help the disability community prepare for this type of disaster.

9 Ways to Prepare, Prepare, Prepare!

Our Working Group member Andrew Rivera offers these 9 suggestions for the preparation and planning phase:

1. Sign up for emergency alerts.

There are several ways to receive these alerts. You can call your local Emergency Management Services office and subscribe to alerts. You can also download the FEMA app to receive real-time alerts from the National Weather Service. Ready.gov also provides a list of other warning alert options and how to get them.

2. Update your important documents and keep them in a safe, readily available location.

Ensure that personal documents such as insurance policies and your ID are up to date. Making copies of them in a secure, password-protected digital space is a good idea.

3. Arrange for accessible transportation before it’s time to evacuate.

Know who to call beforehand, and ensure you have a backup. It is your responsibility to be ready to evacuate with possibly little notice. For people in the disability community, this part of the evacuation process can be extremely challenging.

Disability Policy Consultant and Emergency Preparedness Working Group member June Isaacson Kailes offers these transportation planning suggestions:

Create a support team of a group of people willing and available to help you in the case of an emergency.
Ask your local accessible transportation providers to keep you on a list of people needing transportation.
Sign up with your local emergency management office’s registry of people with disabilities if they have one. This will help you be located and assisted quickly during a disaster. June says this is so important because, “Often during an evacuation, more people need transportation than available resources can support.”

4. Know where to go after you evacuate.

Make sure you know where you want to evacuate. Usually, the best option is family or friends because they may better accommodate you and any service animals or pets. Emergency public shelters can offer a safe place to stay and food. Unfortunately, not all shelters can provide help with personal health care or activities of daily living. It is best to bring a PCA with you if possible.

5. Make a PEEP.

PEEP stands for “personal emergency evacuation plan.” It is for people who may have difficulty evacuating a building to a “place of total safety” on their own in an emergency such as a wildfire.

Owners, occupiers, and managers have a legal duty to ensure that all people who use or visit their buildings can reach a “place of total safety” in a fire safety emergency. The National Fire Protection Agency offers an Emergency Evacuation Planning Guide for People with Disabilities. This guide was created to provide a tool to help people in the disability community plan for an emergency evacuation. It also aims to help managers of buildings with planning considerations for emergency evacuations.

6. Think through what you may need at the evacuation site.

You may want to write out a list of things you will need at an evacuation site to be accessible so that you don’t forget anything when you get there. It is extremely important that you confirm that the shelter can meet your needs.

7. Put together a wildfire preparedness disaster checklist.

The American Red Cross offers a Wildfire Preparedness Checklist to help you take action to prepare and protect yourself, your loved ones, and your home.

8. Stock an emergency supply kit.

United Spinal’s Ready to Roll Emergency Preparedness program provides an Emergency Preparedness Kit Checklist that gives a list of basic items needed. This kit is to get you started, so you also will need to add items specific to your needs. The California Department of Public Health and Ready.gov also provide lists for these kits.

It is suggested to put together two kits. The Stay-at-Home Kit should include two weeks of supplies for everything you need to stay where you are. The Go-Kit should include three days of supplies and be portable in order to take it with you when evacuating. It is recommended by the American Red Cross to have at least a month’s supply of your medication.

9. Plan for a power outage if you require electricity for a ventilator or charging equipment.

Not all power outages are unplanned during disasters such as wildfires. Public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) are sometimes used in areas that are at a high risk of wildfires. This is done to reduce the chance of the electric system causing the ignition of a wildfire.

During PSPS events, it is recommended that people with disabilities reach out to their local county government or local Independent Living Centers (ILCs). Many people rely on power for their equipment and life-sustaining medical devices, so having a back-up battery system is absolutely critical to their survival.

In California, the Disability Disaster Access and Resources (DDAR) Program allows qualifying customers who use electrical medical devices to access backup portable batteries through a grant, lease-to-own, or financial loan application. The DDAR Program is a collaboration between PG&E and the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers (CFILC). This program helps people with medical and independent living needs before, during, and after wildfire safety power outages.

Each DDARC covers a geographic area by county, or specific cities within a county. For more information or to apply for services, go to www.disabilitydisasteraccess.org. Additional information can also be found on the Power Safety Shutoff Backup Battery Options for Consumers document.

The DDAR offers assistance to eligible participants with:

Creating an Emergency Plan
Signing up for the Medical Baseline Program
Applying for a portable backup battery
Receiving food replacement during a PSPS
Finding ADA accessible transportation and hotels

Dealing with Smoke Exposure

With fire comes smoke. For many people in the disability community, this is incredibly dangerous due to having already compromised systems, especially respiratory systems.

Wildfire smoke is extremely complex because it is a mix of gases and fine particles from burning trees, plants, buildings, and other materials. If sheltering in place, it is important to keep the smoke outside by choosing a room you can close off from outside air. Set up a portable air cleaner or filter even if there is smoke in the rest of the building. If you have central air conditioning, run the fan and use high-efficiency filters.

Here are five steps to reduce your exposure to smoke when you are outdoors.

Know your air quality. AirNow provides a Fire and Smoke Map showing fires and North America’s air quality index (AQI).
Take it easy during smoky times. Avoid activities that increase how much you inhale.
Do not rely on dust masks or bandanas.
Have a supply of N95 respirators.
Reduce smoke in your vehicle by closing windows and setting the air conditioning on recirculate mode.

Know your air quality index

Smoke from the more than 880 Canadian wildfires has caused air quality alerts for over a dozen states throughout the United States.

“When I looked out my window, my initial thought was that there was a foggy haze outside,” says Annie Streit, Grassroots Advocacy Manager at United Spinal. “I soon found out that smoke from the wildfires in Canada had reached my home in Indiana, and it lingered for many days.” Several states were at a Level 4 of 6 on the Air Quality Index, and the smoke and unhealthy air went as far south as Alabama.

When looking at the Fire and Smoke Map the Air Quality Index is ranked at six levels:

0-50 Good
51-100 Moderate
101-150 Unhealthy for sensitive groups
151-200 Unhealthy
201-300 Very unhealthy
301+ Hazardous

How About During and After a Wildfire?

The most important step to consider during a wildfire is to stay alert, keep informed, and get to a safe location as quickly as possible when officials say to evacuate. Leaving early is a highly recommended suggestion, even if a wildfire is a safe distance away.

If you become trapped by a wildfire, immediately call 911 and provide your location. Turn your lights on at home if possible, or your headlights and emergency flashers if you are trapped in a vehicle. This may help emergency personnel find you. It is important to remember that help might be delayed or not be able to come at all if conditions make it impossible to reach you.

After a wildfire, do not return to any fire zones until officials give the go-ahead to do so. Returning to burned areas can be extremely dangerous due to many factors:

Falling trees
Damaged structures
Hidden embers and “hot spots.”

The extreme heat after a wildfire may be hot enough to bake the soil, preventing water from soaking in. The rate of erosion and runoff can reach extremely dangerous levels. This can cause communities to be at a high risk of any of the following disasters after a wildfire:

Flooding
Debris flow
Mudslides

If it is safe to return to your home, inspect your home and property in areas that were exposed to embers. CalFire offers a detailed checklist for returning home after a wildfire.

Emergency Preparedness Working Group

If you are interested in participating in United Spinal’s Emergency Preparedness Working Group to collaborate with advocates across the United States on emergency preparedness for the SCI/D and wheelchair user community to deal with natural or human-caused disasters, please fill out this form.

Resources

Information, research, and articles related to preparedness for wildfires for the disability community:

National Fire News, National Interagency Fire Center

Wildfire Awareness Month: Preparing Together as Cross-Disability Communities, Center for Independent Living

Disability Disaster Access & Resources, Disability Disaster Access & Resources, A Program of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers

Wildfire Risk to Communities: Evacuation & Readiness and Community Tools, United States Department of Agriculture

Wildfire Resource Guide & How Disability Rights California Can Help You, Disability Rights California

Prepare for Wildfires, ready.gov

Specific Groups at Risk – People with Disabilities, National Fire Protection Association

Information on effects of smoke inhalation across the US, air quality index, and precautions:

Canadian wildfire smoke puts around 70 million US residents under air quality alerts, CNN

Health Effects Attributed to Wildfire Smoke, Which Populations Experience Greater Risks of Adverse Health Effects Resulting from Wildfire Smoke Exposure?, and Wildfire Smoke Guide and Factsheets, US Environmental Protection Agency

Stay Safe During a Wildfire, Center for Disease Control and Prevention

The illustration at the top of the page is by @Odahumanity. The readiness video is courtesy of www.ready.gov.

If you are interested in participating in one of United Spinal’s Working Groups, please fill out this online form. Contact our Community Support team for more information about all United Spinal’s chapters and programs. Join us by signing up for a free membership. To support our mission, donate here.

Annie Streit

Grassroots Advocacy Manager

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