01/16/2025
*shared from the feed:
Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed in the fires that ravaged Los Angeles County in the last week. They provided jobs to an untold number of nannies, gardeners, housekeepers, plumbers, pool cleaners and other service workers, many of whom are grieving alongside their employers for all that was lost.
Barbara Bruderlin, chief executive officer with the Malibu-Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce, said it’s too soon to know just how much of an effect the fires have had on the region’s workforce, but “there’s a lot of sectors of people that don’t have jobs now.”
Tanya Lopez Brooks, a founding board member of One Voice, estimates that thousands of workers could be affected by the fires, some of whom may be ineligible for government assistance due to their legal status. Her organization, a local nonprofit, has launched a fund specifically to aid service workers.
People such as the family whose members lost their housekeeping jobs in the Palisades fire and whose apartment in Altadena burned in the Eaton fire. And the gardener who worked in the Palisades for 30 years and employed his family members; all are now without jobs.
“They are as much the fabric of the communities that anybody else is,” Lopez Brooks said.
Read more at the link in bio.
✍️ Brittny Mejia; Ruben Vives
📷 Brian van der Brug; Robert Gauthier; John McCoy / For The Times
