LA Wildfires Touch Lives of BU Students, Staff, Instructors, Alums

BU student Maygol Mohammadi shot this photo of her brother fighting the flames at their house with a hose. She says their house has barely survived, but many of their neighbors’ homes are gone. Photos courtesy of Maygol Mohammadi
LA Wildfires Touch Lives of BU Students, Staff, Instructors, Alums
Dean of Students reaches out to affected Terriers with support for the “tremendous loss” they are experiencing; Earth and environment professor explains wildfire phenomenon known as “Santa Ana winds”
The raging wildfires throughout Los Angeles have touched communities across Boston University, from students who live in LA to part-time instructors and full-time staff who work, live, and teach in the city to alumni who have settled in the region, some of whom have lost their homes to the blazes.
BU Today reached a broad swath of the BU community who shared their stories and reflections, as well as photos and videos, of the devastation they have been witnessing and experiencing. Approximately 700 BU alumni live in Malibu and roughly 2,300 in Palisades, both areas that have been hard-hit by the sweeping and fast-moving fires. The BU LA Program (part of BU Study Abroad) is slated to start January 22. And more than 900 students live in homes in the Los Angeles County area.
Maygol Mohammadi (CAS’25), who grew up in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of LA, recalls driving around the area Wednesday and seeing smoke in the mountains above. Initially, she wasn’t worried since brush fires had happened before and were quickly extinguished. But this time was different, and the fire and smoke were only getting bigger.

When she got home, her family was across the street at their neighbor’s, helping them pack their bags. Mohammadi ran into her house to pack her own things before evacuating, but her parents and brother stayed back to protect the house. She got caught in gridlock traffic for hours and finally decided to return to her family’s home.
“It was really smokey, so I grabbed sunglasses and a mask, and I used a hose to put out any flying embers,” she says. “The water was splashing my face because it was so windy. It was straight flames in my face and I became so scared. My brother and parents stayed the whole time and saved my house. They fought for 48 hours. They started using mop buckets to scoop pool water onto any hot spots they could find.”
While her house survived, many neighbors lost their homes. “People don’t understand the severity of the situation,” she says. “My preschool is gone, my high school, all my local businesses—how are these people supposed to rebuild?”
As of Monday, the blazes had killed at least 24 people with numbers expected to rise. Entire neighborhoods have been burned to the ground, leaving nothing but ashes and rubble where modest ranches and multimillion-dollar estates once stood; about 150,000 residents are still under evacuation orders and thousands more have been warned they may have to evacuate. The three major fires—the Eaton, Hurst, and Palisades fires—have spread to roughly 37,316 acres combined.
The National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings for severe weather conditions through Wednesday, with sustained winds and gusts reaching 70 mph.
David Demeritt, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of Earth and environment, says while there are a few reasons these wildfires have grown so furiously, the first is that the LA area, already experiencing extremely dry vegetation, is in the midst of a climatological phenomenon known as “Santa Ana” that leads to strong and dry winds that create dangerous fire weather conditions. This is a regular occurrence in Southern California in the late fall and winter.
“High Santa Ana winds fuel any ignitions making them burn hotter, spread faster and farther, and greatly complicate fire suppression efforts since it’s hard to deploy air assets like tanker planes and helicopters to spread water and fire retardant,” he says.
University Responds
Jason Campbell-Foster, the dean of students, has been communicating with students with LA ties. He assured them that his office is available to coordinate emergency funding that can be used to support their travel back to campus or replenish essential items such as clothing, laptops for class, or food needed when the semester begins.
A firefighter works to put out the flames at Maygol Mohammadi’s neighbor’s home
“The news about the devastating wildfires in your community is truly heartbreaking,” he wrote. “I wanted to take a moment to check in with you and let you know that you’ve been on my mind. I hope you and your loved ones are safe. If there’s anything we can do to support you, please don’t hesitate to reach out when you’re ready…. Not long ago, I visited LA to spend time with our BU alumni, friends, and current students. I was so moved by the warmth and strength of our BU community there. It’s hard to imagine the tremendous loss these fires are creating for all of you.”
He offered his team’s emergency support, resources, and guidance to those who need help, and reminded students of three offices at their disposal: Student Health Services’ Behavioral Medicine, 881 Commonwealth Ave., 617-353-3569; University Chaplains office, Marsh Chapel, 617-358-3394; and Sexual Assault Response & Prevention (SARP) crisis counseling, 930 Commonwealth Ave., 617-353-7277.
The BU LA Program, which has been a launching pad for more than 2,500 students into careers in TV, film, marketing, and public relations, is located on Wilshire Boulevard in central Los Angeles, away from where the fires have largely struck. Students in the program mostly do internships during the day while taking classes at night. BU officials are monitoring the situation closely to assess any possible impact on internships in the coming weeks.
Alums, Faculty on Social Media
Other members of the BU community have been sharing their thoughts across social media. David Dinerstein (COM’84), an Academy Award–winning film producer and media and entertainment executive, posted a heartfelt message on LinkedIn.
“The devastating fires in Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Hollywood Hills and throughout Los Angeles have taken a heartbreaking toll, with several friends and colleagues losing their homes and many more forced to evacuate,” wrote Dinerstein, who won the 2022 Oscar for his documentary film, Summer of Soul. “If you have connections in Southern California, now is the time to check in on them even if you only know them professionally. These fires are catastrophic and continue to spread, leaving many preparing for the worst. Our community is resilient, but the road ahead is uncertain. If you pray, this is the moment to do so. Reach out to friends and loved ones—let them know you care. Even better, if you’re able, offer them a place to stay or the support they need during this difficult time. Thankfully I am safe at this time, although my bags are packed in case we need to evacuate. I am very appreciative of all the check-ins I received.”
COM professor Michelle Amazeen posted a photo on BlueSky saying she had just returned to Boston from a work visit to LA, and wrote of the “truly apocalyptic scenes.”
BU alum Nancy Katz, a career coach for young adults who serves on the dean’s advisory board for the College of General Studies, lives in the San Francisco area and has a seaside condo in Marina del Rey. Her two grown children both live in LA—her son, also a BU alum, and her daughter, who just moved there from New York City—and they have been able to use the condo during the fires, as their homes are just blocks away from the evacuation line.
“As a mother, I feel like I need to go there, but they told me not to come,” Katz (CGS’81, COM’83) says. “It’s just like Armageddon. We all get desensitized when we see so many things on TV, but my goodness, with the winds, it just took up so much acreage.”
She says several of her friends lost their homes and were only able to grab their passports and laptops before fleeing. “All their belongings are just gone. It’s a common story. The good news about living in LA is that we have good weather all the time, and that means it never rains. But the bad news is that it never rains. So it’s like a matchbox.”
Students Stay in Touch
January BU graduate Yelisey Kazakevich (COM’25) returned from the fall program in LA less than a month ago and is currently on the job hunt. He raved about his time in the program, saying that it gave him valuable insight into the industry. Last semester, the LA area experienced a minor earthquake, and Kazakevich says the BU staff did a stellar job keeping students informed on how to prepare should another one happen. He describes the wildfires as a horrible tragedy.
Since the fires broke out, Kazakevich says he’s been keeping in touch with BU friends who are still in the area and says they are fortunately safe. “They say the air quality is horrible,” he says. “A lot of my friends were able to get out of town and stay with friends in other parts of the city. It’s nice to remember in times of crisis how strong the LA community is.”

Renata Feinstein (Wheelock’25) is among the BU students living in the Pacific Palisades. Her childhood home—which is fortunately still standing—is five blocks away from the Palisades fire and was in the mandatory evacuation zone. Her high school is partially gone, and she says practically everyone she knows in the Palisades area has had their house destroyed.
“We’re all in shock right now,” Feinstein says, speaking from a hotel room across from her mom and grandmother. The three were planning to travel farther south to stay with friends in the coming days and were excited to finally be able to breathe without masks since the Los Angeles air quality is terrible. This, unfortunately, isn’t the first time Feinstein has lived through a wildfire. With a wavering voice, she recalls one in 2017 in northern California that burned down her grandparents’ home and her summer camp.
One thing Feinstein wants members of the BU community reading and watching the news to know is not everyone who lives in the affected areas is a wealthy celebrity who can afford to replace their home or has a second home to retreat to.
“I have a close family friend who is a social worker and her husband is a retired electrician, and their house is completely gone,” Feinstein says. She has other friends who were on vacation when the fires broke out and weren’t able to save anything and their home is now just a pile of rubble. “So many people don’t have fire insurance,” she adds.
Feinstein will return to Boston in the next week and says it will be emotionally difficult to not be in the LA area to help her mother, grandmother, and friends rebuild. “I’m graduating in May, and the question is always East Coast vs. West Coast,” she says. “The state is so beautiful, but people have lost so much from these fires. I used to not have an answer, but now? This will definitely be a factor in my decision.”
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