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Hospitals & Facilities

How Los Angeles hospitals have responded to the wildfires

The fires, which broke out on Jan. 7, are still burning and have destroyed thousands of structures and homes.

An abandoned hospital bed still remains across the street from Two Palms Nursing Center after patients were evacuated during the Eaton fire on January 8, 2025 in Altadena, California.

Gina Ferazzi/Getty Images

3 min read

Since early January, wildfires fueled by strong Santa Ana winds have been burning across Los Angeles.

The two largest fires, Palisades and Eaton, have collectively burned more than 35,000 acres as of Jan. 27, according to Watch Duty, an app run by a nonprofit that provides real-time wildfire mapping and updates. Both fires remain burning, though first responders have made significant progress containing them.

Another fire, Hughes, erupted on Jan. 22 in Castaic, a northern LA County town, and quickly spread to more than 10,000 acres.

In response, local hospitals have jumped into disaster mode to provide emergency services and community outreach, but some were forced to temporarily shutter and at least one clinic was destroyed.

The immediate aftermath

Several hospital systems temporarily shut locations near evacuation zones or halted elective surgeries when the fires first started.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the largest hospital in LA by net patient revenue at $3.9 billion, postponed elective surgeries for 24 hours and closed multiple clinics in areas under evacuation orders. The main hospital remained open, according to Jonathan Schreiber, VP of community engagement.

As of Jan. 20, Cedars has resumed surgeries and most offices have reopened, though some in Altadena, a neighborhood that was hit particularly hard by the fires, are still closed. Providers in the Brentwood office are still seeing patients virtually, the system said in a statement.

In the weeks since the fires began, Cedars-Sinai has given more than $250,000 in emergency grants to nine organizations, including the LA Fire Department Wildfire Emergency Fund, according to Schreiber. The system also donated thousands of N95 masks to various organizations and hundreds of pillows to the fire department, he said.

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Huntington Health, which is affiliated with Cedars-Sinai, said its hospital in Pasadena postponed elective procedures and the system closed several clinics near evacuation zones. As of Jan. 24, all its offices have reopened and all surgeries have resumed, spokesperson Dorey Huston said.

But the fire had a major impact on the health system’s staff, Huston added, saying that nearly 50% of Huntington Health’s workforce (more than 2,500 people) were affected by the fires.

“They are experiencing a wide range of challenges from loss of homes completely to damaged homes still under evacuations or school closures impacting their families and childcare,” she said.

A UCLA Health clinic in the Palisades was destroyed by the fire, UCLA spokesperson Phil Hampton told Healthcare Brew. Patients are being redirected to a UCLA clinic in Santa Monica.

Looking ahead

Hospitals are still in the “response part” of the disaster cycle, Brad Goldberg, medical director of emergency management at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, told Healthcare Brew, and it could take up to a year to understand how effective their responses were and what lessons could be learned for future disasters.

“Disasters get a lot of publicity in the initial response phase,” Goldberg said. “But the disaster cycle lasts months and years afterward, and our communities here in the greater Los Angeles area are going to need a lot of support…because this is not something that’s going to go away once the cameras turn off.”

Navigate the healthcare industry

Healthcare Brew covers pharmaceutical developments, health startups, the latest tech, and how it impacts hospitals and providers to keep administrators and providers informed.