LA County recovery program helping wildfire survivors find new jobs

Since the Eaton Fire damaged her family's house, Adriene McIver has called an Azusa hotel room home. 

"We're basically starting over," McIver said. 

In the weeks after, the devastating wildfire forced her to leave her job in home care.

"I had to," she said. "My parents needed me."

For months, McIver has waited for any kind of stability to return, and she's far from alone. 

Thousands of workers were hit with job losses after last year's wildfires. A report from the nonpartisan California Policy Lab showed that unemployment claims jumped between 12-17% after the Palisades and Eaton fires. 

Juan Bachelier was a video editor for nearly 20 years. Most of his clients were based in the Palisades. When the wildfire hit, his work vanished overnight. 

"I had to find some work, so I ended up working construction for about six months in Arizona," he said. 

After half a year, Bachelier and McIver received a lifeline through a job fair tailored specifically for fire survivors. 

"I heard about the job fair," McIver said. "I was encouraged to go. I went there. First thing I saw was the county of Los Angeles."

Funded by a grant from California's Employment Development Department, the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity started the Fire Recovery and Resilience Workforce Program to provide jobs for people impacted by the fires. It holds weekly job fair pop-ups.

Senior project manager Maritza Dubie-Uribe said the program has helped more than 200 fire survivors get back on their feet.

"We aren't talking about bricks and mortar, we're talking about really reconnecting people's lives, because that's what life is about," she said.

McIver and Bachelier were hired by the county to work inside the One-Stop Permit Center in Altadena to help others navigate recovery while rebuilding their own lives.