A firefighter passes the remains of the Altadena Community Church on Saturday, Jan. 11. Along with rebuilding structures that burned in L.A.’s devastating wildfires, we will need to rebuild connections in communities that suffered. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
A peek at the past as a roadmap for rebuilding
Original story by William Deverell
In the wake of the devastation caused by widespread wildfires in January 2025, Wrigley Institue faculty affiliate and Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West Director William Deverell calls attention to the fact that Californians must not only rebuild lost physical infrastructure, but also “soft infrastructure, the network of social ties holding communities of people together.”
Exploring the aftermath of wildfire is no foreign task for Deverell, who has spent his career studying political, social, ethnic, and environmental history in the Western U.S. In 2021, Deverell explored the West’s relationship with fire in Season 1 of the institute’s Western Edition podcast, titled The West on Fire.
In an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, he states that we one way we can repair our community is through “marking and remembering, trying to retie threads that connect us to history and place.” This includes interviewing affected community members and telling their stories, as well as creating archival spaces to preserve those memories.
“This collective endeavor will ensure that, even in anonymity, the victims will not be forgotten. More hopeful is that perspective gained on historical heartache will offer the possibility of social repair,” says Deverell.