Wildfires and other natural disasters create severe feelings of fear and uncertainty, as survivors work to pick up the pieces and begin the process of rebuilding and healing.
These disasters pose immediate and long-term risks to both adults and children. But, it can be especially hard for younger survivors who may not yet have the skills or understanding in navigating challenges like the loss of a home, attending a different school, or other major disruptions to their routine lives.
Northern California is no stranger to wildfire, seeing major disasters like the 2018 Camp Fire and 2020 North Complex Fire. And these tragedies have inspired efforts to help children process the impacts of a wildfire, and recover.
After the Camp Fire destroyed much of the town of Paradise, a team of North State researchers, educators and social workers put together a resource aimed at parents, families and professionals.
“Your Playbook on How to Support Children, Youth, & Families During & After a Wildfire” is a 61-page guide meant for use before, during and after a fire. Released in 2023, the guide has been shared following major disasters like the Maui wildfires that year, as well as the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles County.
The playbook focuses on the importance of community, collaboration and mutual support, and includes multiple sections ranging from asking for donations, to understanding trauma and healing.
The group behind the playbook include Lindsey Nenadal, a professor of Child Development at Chico State; Scott Dinits, Human Resources Director with the Boys and Girls Club of the North Valley; and Tess Manley, an Early Childhood Specialist in Butte County.
The trio recently spoke with Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez about how the resource came to be.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Lindsey, how long has this playbook been in the works, and how did it come to be?
NENADAL: This was a really organic process. Our community experienced the very devastating Camp Fire in 2018, and a couple years later we had the North Complex Fire that was also impacting our community. The CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of the North Valley mentioned that we had learned so much from the 2018 Camp Fire. She wished we could just put everything we learned down so that when these other fires happened we'd be ready to respond, we'd have a playbook and we could just go. That started the idea, and from there I and some of my students partnered with the Boys and Girls Club. They are really embedded in our community and have so many connections.
They were able to connect me with a lot of professionals in the community who supported children and families after the Camp Fire, so we went on to interview a bunch of community members to get insight, tips and strategies from them.
What did you learn about any misconceptions around how children are, or aren’t, impacted by disaster?
NENADAL: I think number one, I am an associate professor of child development and children are part of my everyday world and studies, but I know that's not always the case. Sometimes people aren't always thinking about the needs of children right away. Or, I think there’s a lot of good intentions and we think about the basic needs of children and families.
We think about shelter, food and water, and clothing, but what we forget a lot of times is how we can help support them socially, emotionally and mentally. That was something that was really highlighted through the interviews of the playbook… that children and families need these supports. And we need to be thinking about these as [a] community when we are responding to wildfires.
When it comes to community resources one of those is the Boys and Girls Club of the Northern Valley. What is the role of this organization during moments like a wildfire?
DINITS: Our role always is to support the community's youngest people, and those are our kids. We primarily serve TK all the way up to senior and high school and we have 11 different sites in two counties doing great work every day.
I think when you do the work every day, and you have an open-hand approach where you're utilizing school, community resources, other organizations, that really helps you be a hub of service, stay grounded, and support your community in the greatest times of need. And that's how we were able to be a hub for people during various disasters and these fires recently.
We're talking about traumatic events. How have you seen those impacts unfold over the last several years?
DINITS: There were things prior to the Camp Fire. There were other fires, other issues. And we work with a lot of kids that are dealing with different forms of adversity, challenges, stress, and trauma in family, life and community, and then through fires and other things. And I think every kid is different. So there's rooted best practices that we learn from education and therapists and partners, and then just realizing, “how can we be a safe place for all kids, and adapt as needed?” Because just like adults, [they] cope and heal in different ways. And so not assuming other than we need to be open, we need a safe place, we need safe people to build relationships and support kids.
After that, there's a lot of ambiguity because every kid is different in how they heal, how they cope and how they learn. And also, how they adapt to stress because of the supports, or lack of supports, around them. There's a lot of kids going through tough things and we know rebuilding takes a long time, and healing the various struggles and stress and wounds can take a long time too.
Tess, you specialize in early childhood. What would you like adults and caretakers to know about when it comes to potential warning signs or behaviors in young children?
MANLEY: Young children, their brains and bodies are developing so rapidly, and they are like adults. We might have behaviors that are more regressive… so tantruming, more clinging, more silence or isolation.
A typically regular five-year-old might want to have the same book that was read to them as a two year old over and over again. Young children communicate through their play and so playing out the scenarios of a disastrous event can happen not just during the actual event, but after… sometimes years after, and repeatedly.
Regulate, relate and repeat is so critical, and that is really true for adults, youth, adolescents, but especially for young children and families. Eat together, be together, play together.
In a follow-up email, Manley told CapRadio that young children’s behavioral responses to wildfires and other disasters can range significantly. “They may be quiet, overly loud, cling to known adults in one moment, strike out in another, cry or giggle in another moment,” Manley wrote. She noted verbal young children may also ask questions that adults may find difficult to answer, but emphasized that “as adults, we can assure young children that they are ‘safe’ right now.”
Lindsey Nenadal (left), Tess Manley (center) and Shelley Hart (right) present their work on the playbook.Courtesy of Lindsey Nenadal
These can sound straightforward, but turn out to be challenging in practice when you have trauma spanning generations. What advice do you have about realistically applying this knowledge in the heat of the moment?
MANLEY: Specific to our experience here in Butte County, I’m not just a service provider and a lecturer… also I’m a human being, and I experienced much of what we were all going through at the time. So I think again, just taking care of oneself, connecting with others, and really listening across the board. Recognizing those signs, especially of isolation. I think often, it’s easy to see the things that are being acted out in a strong way. It’s also really important to stay connected to what might be quieter.
What kind of feedback have you received in the years since it was first released?
NENADAL: I have heard a lot of really positive and helpful things. People have responded saying, “it's nice to have a place to go and look, and to see things clearly written out.” I think a lot of times in disasters, as those of you who have experience know, it's very overwhelming.
There's so much to do, so much to think through. And this playbook really lays out like some clear bullet-pointed lists of what you can do before, during, or after. Here's some resources you can link to. Here's a little work area where you can jot your own thoughts of how you might want to respond from your organization or school's viewpoint. A lot of the feedback has been just around how helpful it is, how needed it is.
Tess, how would you like this playbook to grow?
MANLEY: I think we’re already immersed in that, by including our youngest citizens. Really the prenatal through five, six-year-old age group and their families as well. I would like to see it continuing to grow and expand, receiving feedback, and observing, reflecting and responding.
Nenadal later added the playbook is evolving as more wildfires occur. In addition to adding information from interviews with professionals supporting young children and families, the document is also being updated with information from the LA wildfires about supporting urban communities impacted by disaster.
