I signed up for disaster training in LA. I had no idea I’d need it so soon

<p>Four months ago, I took an emergency response course. Then the wildfires came, and I realised, in an era of disasters, how vital trained neighbors are</p><p>Kelley McIntosh is the kind of person who gives her friends fire extinguishers as housewarming gifts. In other words, my kind of person: as a climate journalist who’s spent eight years reporting on adaptations critical to life in our burning, storming, fevered world, I’ve been known to gift-wrap prepper items, too. Loved ones have sighed and nodded as they opened solar lanterns, flashlights and emergency radios none of us quite understand how to “crank”.</p><p>Shockingly for two hypervigilants, neither Kelley nor I had ever actually pulled the pin and shot a fire extinguisher until the day we met last September in Los Angeles.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/16/california-wildfires-los-angeles-emergency-training">Continue reading...</a>