Sayre Fire: Collaborating for Long Term Disaster Recovery Case Management

The Sayre Fire of 2008 was the most destructive fire in Los Angeles' history in terms of homes destroyed, producing hundreds of individual or household client cases. It dislocated an entire community composed primarily of elderly residents living on fixed incomes and with chronic health concerns. A group of non-profit, faith-based, and community organizations assembled to assist this population with long term recovery through individual/household case management. This ethnography provides insight into the dynamics of collaborative long term recovery that required agencies to work together for the first time in a complex and non-routine situation. It explores the group dynamics of assisting a vulnerable population, the lessons learned, and the dynamics with organizations that represented the affected community. It provides a detailed description of the process, the tools used, and the overall effectiveness of administering long term disaster recovery case management by committee. It describes pitfalls to be avoided and suggests some best practices for future long term recovery committees. This ethnography is less about the affected population and more about the experience of the agencies assembled to assist them.