NBC News reports wildfires in the Los Angeles area have claimed 29 lives so far. The Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire sparked Jan. 7. They have destroyed more than 16,000 homes and structures, burning over 37,000 acres.
Anna Robertson is the co-founder of The Cool Down. It’s a Park City-based company teaching people how to live more sustainable lives. The organization aims to connect people with climate topics in a more practical and accessible way, focusing on innovation rather than political issues.
Robertson said she started the company after 2018 wildfires forced her from her Los Angeles home.
“I was working in the media industry before I started The Cool Down, and had evacuated in the middle of the night with my kids,” she said. “And that was one of the light bulb moments that led me to want to devote my entire career to climate change because I just knew that it was only going to get worse.”
Robertson said she has dozens of friends who have lost their homes — and everything inside them — to this year’s LA fires. While multiple factors cause extreme wildfires like those in Southern California, she said climate change has created circumstances causing more extreme weather events.
“This is the new reality we're living in,” Robertson said. “It raises a lot of concerns, even for an area like Park City where we are vulnerable in the summer months, obviously, to wildfires and to extreme weather.”
She urges homeowners to prepare for the future. She says prevention starts when the homebuilding and landscaping begins.
That includes choosing drought-tolerant grasses and leaving defensible space around homes. She said creating a defensible space, or buffer, where trees and other flammable materials are kept away from a structure is one of the best ways to defend a home against wildfires.
Robertson also recommends homeowners keep a video log of their home and everything in it. That information can be crucial if the worst happens and people lose their homes.
She suggests families prepare wildfire go-bags so they can evacuate quickly in case of emergencies.
A victim of wildfires herself, Robertson said she feels for those affected by the LA fires. However, she said she hopes these events can spark more conversation about how to sustainability build a safer future.
