On January 7, 2025, fires erupted across the city of Los Angeles, California. The Eaton Fire burned through the eastern side of the city, burning through the Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre communities and causing 18 deaths, destroying 9,400 structures, and scorching 14,000 acres of land. In the west, the Palisades Fire led to twelve deaths, destroyed over 6,000 structures, and covered over 23,000 acres in the Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu. The Hurst, Kenneth and Hughes fires also burned through parts of northwestern and central LA. The Eaton and Palisades fires are the second and third-most dangerous fires in California’s lengthy wildfire history. Each burned for 24 days. By the end of January, almost 13,000 households were displaced by the Eaton and Palisades fires alone.

When the fires first began, the State of California and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) jumped into action, providing Los Angeles residents with up-to-date information on the fires and active recovery efforts. The state and federal recovery plans span countless priorities, from housing to healthcare to education. Recovery includes establishing and maintaining emergency communications networks and ensuring that all displaced households have access to online services as they deal with the aftermath of these disasters. Undoubtedly necessary to these response and recovery efforts is the role of broadband.

California Wildfires

While California has a long history of wildfires, the rate at which they are cropping up and spreading has rapidly increased in recent years. Eighteen of California’s 20 most destructive fires have occurred since 2000, and eight of those have occurred in the last five years.

CAL FIRE is currently monitoring the ongoing emergency response for 653 wildfires spanning almost 60,000 acres burned and 16,251 structures destroyed so far in 2025. In all of 2024, CAL FIRE responded to 462 wildfires that burned 341 acres of land.

The extreme nature of the Eaton and Palisades fires was due to a number of climate-related factors, from seasonal weather conditions to human influences. There were high amounts of flammable vegetation in the fire regions due to an extremely wet winter followed by extreme heat and record dryness. While the exact causes are unclear, the fire triggers were human-caused, and our warming climate continues to increase the likelihood of more extreme wildfires across California. Strong Santa Ana winds reached near-record speeds blowing across Southern California and enhanced the fires once they caught on to the primed terrain.

Government Support of Recovery Efforts

Following the outbreak of the fires came an outpouring of support for Los Angeles residents impacted by the fires, with governmental and community efforts to keep Angelenos connected to the internet beginning during the disaster and ongoing since.

State and Federal Collaboration

On January 8, the Biden Administration approved Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) request for a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration to support ongoing response efforts related to the wildfires. With this declaration, the federal government will cover 100 percent of California’s fire management and debris removal costs for 180 days. The Biden Administration also made available federal funding to cover emergency response costs, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Individual Assistance programs for affected citizens and businesses.

Under FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program, those affected by the fires may qualify for personal property assistance, which can include money to help repair or replace appliances, room furnishings, and a computer damaged by the disaster. This can also include money for books, uniforms, tools, additional computers, and other items required for school or work, including self-employment.

Federal Communications Commission

Then-Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel released a statement two days after the fires broke out, saying that while communications impacts were “minimal” at that time, the FCC would continue to monitor the situation and assess Los Angeles residents’ ability to access emergency communications information, providing support if needed.

On January 13, Chairwoman Rosenworcel shared an update, saying that the FCC was collaborating with state officials and FEMA to deploy “spectrum survey assessment teams” to identify communications gaps and assess emergency communications needs in Los Angeles. Chairwoman Rosenworcel noted that outages remained minimal but that FCC staff was “helping to manage public safety spectrum use and coordinating with government and industry on response efforts.” The FCC then issued grants of Special Temporary Authority, which permitted immediate operation of certain radio facilities during the emergency.

The FCC’s Disability Rights Office also offered resources and information about accessible emergency notifications and communications.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks also issued a statement following a visit to Los Angeles and meeting with Cal FIRE, Western Fire Chiefs Association, and AT&T FirstNet officials.

Internet Service Providers Respond

Pretty quickly, major internet service providers (ISPs) that serve Los Angeles communities responded to the outbreak of the wildfires.

AT&T

Soon after the fires started, AT&T announced that postpaid and prepaid customers with billing zip codes in affected areas would receive unlimited talk, text and data from January 8 through March 31, 2025.

According to KCAL News in Los Angeles, AT&T customers in the Altadena area who tried to cancel their service following the destruction of their homes were receiving messages warning them of upcoming fees if they did not return their AT&T equipment, which was destroyed in the fires. Some families who reached out to AT&T to explain their circumstances continued to receive these messages afterward.

Following increased awareness due to news coverage and community advocacy efforts, AT&T released a statement saying that no impacted families would be responsible for fees due to their inability to return (now-destroyed) equipment.

Weeks later, on February 14, AT&T announced an expanded offering of up to three months of internet service for free via credits in upcoming billing cycles, as long as customers keep their service.

AT&T’s FirstNet, the federally supported communications network built with and for first responders, worked to prioritize emergency communications needs and deploy mobile cell sites and other dedicated network assets for first responder communications.

Verizon

Soon after the outbreak of the fires, Verizon announced it would waive prepaid and postpaid call/text/data usage incurred from January 9 to January 18 for California’s residents in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura counties. The company’s prepaid brands—including Straight Talk, Tracfone, Total Wireless, Simple Mobile, Walmart Family Mobile, Net10, GoSmart, and Page Plus—also extended service end dates to January 18, 2025, for customers in the impacted counties. Verizon also waived domestic call, text, and data usage for Verizon Prepaid users on metered plans and opened its stores to free charging and Wi-Fi in impacted communities.

One week later, Verizon extended this waiver to February 28 for postpaid customers.

The company reported that wildfire conditions and power shutoffs in the Los Angeles area had caused service interruptions for some customers. Verizon engineers deployed portable generators to mitigate impacts for affected customers. In the hardest hit areas where fiber was burned, Verizon deployed temporary satellite assets to provide additional connectivity. Overall, the company said that impacts to its network were minimal.

The Verizon Frontline Crisis Response Team responded to 33 requests for mission-critical communications support by delivering mobile hotspots, routers, smart devices, network extenders, charging stations, and a Satellite Picocell on a Trailer.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile offered unlimited talk, text and data to T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile and Assurance Wireless customers who don’t already have it in impacted areas including Agoura Hills, Altadena, Arcadia, Azusa, Baldwin Park, Calabasas, Duarte, La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles, Malibu, Monrovia, Newhall, Pacific Palisades, Pasadena, San Gabriel, San Marino, Santa Monica, Sierra Madre and Valyermo. This offer continued through February 28. T-Mobile also increased data allotments for Mint and Ultra Mobile customers.

The company also waived any home internet equipment non-return fees for customers with devices that were lost or damaged in the fires. T-Mobile enabled Starlink Direct-to-Cellular service over impacted areas of Southern California, with basic texting, including to 911, and delivering wireless emergency alerts. The T-Mobile/Starlink partnership, which allows T-Mobile to receive supplementary coverage from Starlink, was approved by the FCC in November 2024.

On January 24, T-Mobile said that its network was operating as normal, with areas that had the most damage continuing to have short-term support in place. The wireless provider also opened its stores to free Wi-Fi and charging in select areas.

T-Mobile also provided first responders with activated devices and eSIMs with T-Priority and Wireless Priority Service. The T-Mobile Mobile Command Center was also deployed to support first responders at Will Rogers State Beach.

Starlink

For new customers, Starlink provided free service through February 10th, 2025, for those in the affected region. For existing customers, Starlink provided a one-month service credit to all customers in the affected region.

Starlink also promised to provide free replacement gear for those whose equipment may have been damaged in the fires. However, the company noted that there may be limitations on the ability to transfer these kits or continue free service outside of the disaster region. Starlink’s Los Angeles Wildfire Response webpage includes maps of the affected area and full information on its offers.

Charter Spectrum

Similar to AT&T, Los Angeles community advocates reported that Charter Communications’ subsidiary Spectrum was sending emails and communications to customers who had canceled their service, demanding the return of equipment under threat of hefty fines––despite customers having already informed the company their homes were destroyed in the wildfire.

According to C|NET, Spectrum issued a follow-up statement that no customers impacted by the fires would be charged for damaged equipment. The company also provided service credits for those who lost power but not service until they got back online.

Spectrum has also opened up over 35,000 Wi-Fi access points across Los Angeles. Customers can look up the closest Spectrum hotspot to them using the company’s lookup tool. Further resources can be found on Spectrum’s California Consumer Disaster Protections Page.

Communications Network Resilience in California

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the state’s telecommunications regulator, has a six-part plan for wireless and wireline service providers to ensure that 911, 211, emergency alerts, and access to basic internet always remain available during natural disasters. Service providers are able to be flexible with how they implement the plan:

1. Implement 72-hour backup power to support essential communications equipment and minimum service levels for the public.
2. Build and maintain redundant communication networks.
3. Harden communication networks to withstand damage.
4. Restore service to damaged or destroyed facilities. Use temporary facilities (mobile cell sites, mobile satellite, microwave backhaul, etc.).
5. Establish communication and coordination processes with first responders, other public utilities, the Commission, and the general public.
6. Establish preparedness planning for employees and ensure sufficient staffing levels.

California law also requires all telecommunications service providers to notify the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) whenever a community isolation outage occurs that limits customers’ ability to make 911 calls or receive emergency notifications.

California’s BEAD Resiliency Strategy

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, established by Congress to ensure high-speed Internet access is available everywhere in the U.S., requires that states demonstrate that they have sufficiently accounted for current and future weather- and climate-related risks when funding new broadband infrastructure projects—including wildfires and climate change events.

Because retrofitted and new infrastructure for broadband is expected to have a lifetime of 20 years or more, states must account not only for current risks but also for how the frequency, severity, and nature of these extreme events may plausibly evolve as our climate continues to change over the coming decades.

NTIA’s guidance on BEAD notes that communities that lack broadband are also often the most vulnerable to extreme weather and climate events. This combination often results in a lack of crucial communications infrastructure to respond during these emergencies.

California’s August 2023 BEAD Five-Year Action Plan notes that fiber-optic network construction in the state must take into account risks from wildfires. Installing cables underground can provide protection against heat damage in areas prone to fire. The Public Policy Institute of California found that 2.7 million Californians live in areas deemed very high risk for wildfire, and millions more are at risk for heavy snow, landslides, ice, flooding, high winds, and earthquakes, putting the communications networks that serve these residents at high risk of failure when the residents need them the most.

Regional-Local Workshop feedback in the creation of the Five-Year Action Plan included recommendations to ensure or incentivize building infrastructure underground and designing for redundancy. Tribal consultations echoed the call for design and investment in resilient infrastructure with redundancy in case of climate events and emergency situations.

California’s BEAD Initial Proposal Volume Two (IPV2) notes that wildfire, and particularly wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire, is one of the greatest sources of hazard to California, both in terms of recent history as well as the probability of future destruction of greater magnitudes than previously recorded.

BEAD will prioritize fiber optic deployments in California, but alternative technologies such as
fixed wireless may make up a relatively significant portion of the BEAD deployments, as fixed
wireless deployments leverage a lower initial cost and can deploy faster (though they incur
higher ongoing maintenance costs and per-subscriber equipment expenses).

Through the aforementioned resiliency strategies of the CPUC and continuing with its BEAD subgrant deployments, the CPUC will focus on:

• Strengthening the ability and preparedness of service providers to maintain a minimum level of communication services and coverage during a disaster or commercial power grid outage events/incidents;
• Strengthening service providers' ability to recover from or adjust to adversity or change through an array of strategies;
• Ensuring the existence of resilient and dependable communications networks aiding first responders;
• Ensuring the existence of timely and reliable access to essential communication services for the public; and
• Ensuring the capability to assess and identify the weaknesses in service providers’ resiliency planning and implementation so that we may develop solutions that will increase safety.

The CPUC will ask all BEAD subgrantee applicants to have a business continuity plan that includes natural hazard risk mitigation to broadband deployment and ask applicants whose project areas include identified high-risk areas to provide specific responses to how they will incorporate mitigation measures into their deployment planning. Additionally, the CPUC will outline the following among the possible strategies grant participants can engage in to address natural hazard risks:

• Favoring buried fiber compared to aerial to largely eliminate the above risks in many cases;
• Retrofitting and hardening existing network assets that are deemed critical to BEAD expansion projects;
• Favoring redundancy in network designs to reduce single points of failure;
• Considering average down time and emergency response time in applicant selection; and
• Encouraging the use of backup generator power systems where applicable.

Connecting Communities During and After the Fires

As of 2024, approximately 14 percent of all individuals in Los Angeles live in households without a broadband subscription. For those without internet access or essential digital skills, staying informed with emergency communications put out by the City of Los Angeles or Los Angeles County may have been a challenge when it was most needed.

"It's a lack of access to the most time-sensitive information in a life-or-death situation," said Cristal Mojica, Senior Program Manager of the Michelson 20MM Foundation’s Digital Equity Initiative.

Mojica stressed the importance of devices. The ongoing digital divide means that many households may not receive the emergency alerts needed to stay up-to-date during the fires. Families who use their televisions for emergency updates may have struggled to receive up-to-date information without access to a working cellular device or internet subscription when power outages hit their neighborhood.

To tackle the gap in device access exacerbated by the fires, local organizations partnered to distribute free devices and make free connectivity available at accessible locations in the affected communities. The quickest way for displaced families to access a variety of resources and receive FEMA recovery funds is through online channels, making devices urgently needed.

"Not having a device was going to be a big barrier for them to be able to... their households, their families... to be able to seek out services,” said Norma Fernandez, CEO of national digital equity nonprofit Everyone On. “From folks who need to submit their insurance claim or know where to go to receive extra support, whether it's mental health support or shelter or food or other donations, a lot of it is online.”

Everyone On partnered with community-based nonprofit Day One to distribute computers to families displaced by the Eaton Fire in Altadena. In a survey of those families who received these devices, many households reported being charged by their ISP for in-home equipment damaged by the wildfires. While these practices ended due to pressure from advocates, Everyone On and its partner organizations are working to ensure that displaced families stay informed and aware of these changes.

The countless resources available online for recovering Angelenos cannot bring relief to communities if displaced families cannot access them. Beyond just obtaining access to a device and an internet connection, households may struggle to know what resources are online if they lack the digital skills and support to find them.

"All of those [resources] were being promoted primarily online and required folks having the ability to hop on to a computer or a cell phone," said Fernandez. "And not just the tools to be able to do that, but also the know-how to be able to navigate being able to leverage those services."

Fernandez noted that a number of local organizations and community anchor institutions stepped up to ensure that the Altadena community stayed connected. California nonprofit Human I-T is another organization that's offering free computers or internet to those impacted by the fires.

This network of local advocates set up a system of in-person outreach events and hands-on support opportunities to allow displaced families to access and navigate those online resources, like requesting FEMA support, processing insurance claims, and educational needs for kids. This kind of network, or the human infrastructure of broadband, points to the need for digital navigation services as a part of building resilience. And more support is needed to make this work sustainable across the city of Los Angeles and statewide.

"Being prepared with resilient systems means communities have access to the tools the city provides," adds Mojica.

These community-led efforts help to ensure that policymakers do not miss the essential component of digital inclusion to helping the city of Los Angeles recover from the devastating wildfires in January.

"I think it was really those of us that are in this space in LA that said, 'Hey, we also need to address this disaster through a digital equity lens,'" Fernandez said.

Visit the State of California's 2025 Los Angeles Fires webpage for ongoing information on recovery efforts and guidance on how to receive support.

See Also

• Resilient Kentucky Responds to Latest Floods
• Milton's Four Horses Ride Through Florida
• The Road to Recovery in Western North Carolina

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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