Crisis, Culture and Community: Examining the Maui 2023 and LA 2025 Wildfires

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Lauren Azevedo, Ratna Dougherty, Christa Remington and Kaila Witkowski
May 30, 2025

The 2023 Maui fires left an indelible mark in the historic town of Lahaina and throughout Hawaii, burning more than 2,100 acres and 2,220 buildings and taking the lives of more than 115 people. The recent containment of a devastating wildfire in California, which burned more than 40,000 acres and destroyed more than 12,000 structures, highlights the urgent need for proactive measures in crisis preparedness for community-based and crisis response organizations. The lessons from both Maui and LA underscore the critical need for swift, coordinated responses to protect vulnerable communities and ecosystems from the intensifying effects of climate change in a culturally appropriate manner.

As a part of a larger research project, our research team has been involved with examining the network response, role of nonprofits and unique cultural and administrative challenges after the 2023 Maui wildfires and the ongoing recovery. Our team had two site visits to Maui and conducted interviews with 31 participants from leading nonprofit response organizations and community members, as well as collected data from 381 social media posts and dozens of news articles that have informed our work, which is supported through the Weather Ready Research Award supported by the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder (through the National Science Foundation) as well as the University of South Florida Humanities Institute. As we reflect on the recent LA wildfires, we are seeing several similarities and differences in terms of crisis response and culturally responsive approaches that require deeper inquiry in research and greater consideration for practice.

The response to these separate wildfire crises is similar in many aspects, including the need for immediate relief and rapid coordination with nonprofits and critical mobilization of volunteers from the community and beyond; however, there are differences in terms of approach to response and cultural and community considerations. For instance, in Maui the response was distinctly localized, with organizations like the Hawaii Community Foundation playing a critical role in leveraging networks and resources to connect with indigenous and hard to reach groups. The Maui response organizations considered deep cultural ties that Native Hawaiian communities have and understood to incorporate cultural practices (like utilizing a cultural “hui” or teams and cultural brokers). This approach speaks to the “aloha spirit” on the island. Relationships have been key in the community for sharing resources and information and rebuilding.

Los Angeles is extremely culturally diverse, which also highlights the need for cultural sensitivity and tailored response support, particularly in multilingual communication to varying communities. In LA, however, the response teams have had to navigate more urban areas with complex infrastructure and wide scale community-based organizations. So far, the LA response approach has been standard in that it is considering different groups, markets and communication strategies for a broader audience.

Another key difference we have seen is in the resource support directed to communities in these wildfires. Underrepresented and indigenous groups faced significant challenges in receiving timely, critical support in Maui. FEMA and other agencies faced unique challenges in Maui that slowed federal, state and local response, such as initial confusion in communication due to power outages, difficulty in accessing areas due to terrain and infrastructure damage and lack of housing solutions available on the island, to name a few. Los Angeles has a larger number of foundations and corporate sponsors with more immediate access to funding (such as the LA Disaster Relief Navigator, launched by Better Angels) and was operating in an urban area that afforded different evacuation and housing options and resources that could be mobilized more expeditiously. Unlike Maui, LA response teams could rely on geographically neighboring states to share resources, personnel and technology within those first few critical hours to multiple response efforts. Finally, Maui faced additional challenges due to competition for limited resources and did not have as much attention as the LA response in terms of celebrities, wealthy philanthropists and highly connected people or organizations donating to relief funds.

Our work in Maui is evolving continuously as recovery continues and many themes have come to light in terms of navigating unique cultural contexts and communities after crises that are appropriate for diverse communities. Both fires highlight the integral role of nonprofits in helping to mobilize resources and the critical role of nonprofit networks and collaborative crisis response working on the ground with local, state and federal agencies. However, the cultural context and needs of individuals impacted by these crises vary greatly and provide unique lessons for building capacity for future crisis response. The most important lessons for nonprofits we’ve drawn so far include:

1. Investing in continual capacity building planning, including technological capacity

2. Integrating community members and indigenous knowledge systems into response networks to cultivate resilience

3. Building strong partnerships prior to disasters centered on trust and open communication with government agencies, businesses, academic institutions and community groups to foster collaborative ecosystem

4. Establishing clear leadership and coordination mechanisms within response networks that include nonprofits and community organizations (before crisis) to mobilize resources and share information quickly

5. Adopting agile governance and leadership frameworks that accommodate dynamic circumstances

6. Developing flexible and sustainable funding models and processes to ensure nonprofits and grassroots organizations can maintain operations, adapt to evolving needs and provide long-term recovery support in partnership with government organizations and extending beyond the initial crisis response

These lessons are imperative for nonprofit agencies and crisis response organizations as we continue to prepare for future crises.

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Authors: Lauren Azevedo, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at UNC Charlotte. She can be reached at [email protected].

Ratna Dougherty, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida. She can be reached at [email protected]

Christa Remington, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida. She can be reached at [email protected]

Kaila Witkowski, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University. She can be reached at [email protected]

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