Displacement after the Camp Fire: Where are the Most Vulnerable?

Abstract

Recovery from wildfire is often cast as the rebuilding of homes by the displaced. This focus ignores the diversity of livelihoods and access to resources among people living in the wildland-urban interface. The 2018 Camp Fire in Butte County, northern California, invites the rethinking of vulnerability and wildfire. Almost an entire town of 27,000 was destroyed, as well as long-established surrounding rural communities. The extent of devastation and displacement has revealed the shortcoming of a perspective of victimhood that focuses on property ownership. We challenge this bias that equates community with property ownership with three sources of data that, although limited, allow for a more granular view of the diversity of displacement and the ongoing vulnerability that exists in the shadows of the rebuild.

Keywords:

• Camp Fire
• Disaster
• displacement
• hazards
• vulnerability
• wildfire
• wildland urban interface

Acknowledgments

The authors received support from the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences and the Department of Geography and Planning at California State University, Chico. LaDona Knigge, Heather Werner, Megan Kurtz, Kate Scowsmith, and Susan Hartman provided feedback and information. Tara Sullivan Hanes and Brent Roden helped make the Butte–Glenn 211 and the St. Vincent de Paul data available, respectively.

Consent information

A human subjects clearance application was filed with Chico State Enterprises/Human Subjects in Research Committee and expedited approval was granted in January 2019 (Protocol # 21062).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.