In January 2025, destruction burned across southern California. Santa Ana winds raged up to 100 miles per hour in a region struck by abnormally dry and hot conditions. The fires spread rapidly throughout densely populated areas of Los Angeles County, taking an estimated 440 lives.
The two largest fires, Palisades and Eaton, spread devastation for three weeks from January 7 to 31. The fires burned over 50,000 acres and destroyed nearly 16,000 homes and businesses.
On the first night of the fires, Random Acts Recruiter Jason Glockner and Event Coordinator Cassandra Glockner watched for hours as one of the wildfires burned less than 1 mile away. In the distance, entire communities and neighborhoods were being destroyed. Jason and other residents feared they would be next to evacuate.
“We were one of the lucky ones, though,” said Jason. “And we knew that we had to help others who weren’t so fortunate.”
Gathering Donations
Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has a proven history of helping in Los Angeles, specifically working for families impacted by wildfires. The organization’s fire recovery efforts provide both food and non-food assistance to affected Los Angeles residents.
With financial support from the Random Acts Natural Disaster Recovery Fund, Jason donated 134 boxes of food items and 180 boxes of various non-food items.
While attending the Creation Charity Event: Salute to the Women of Sci-Fi Convention, Jason collected additional funds for Random Acts’ Natural Disaster Recovery Fund to spend on donations. He also collected non-food items from conventiongoers to add to the donation.
Coming Together To Help the Communities
Over the course of three weeks in March, Jason gathered and delivered donations to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Lacking space in their apartment and without a vehicle large enough, Jason and Cassandra could not collect and drop off everything in one go.
Instead, they took several trips to the supermarket and four trips to Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to purchase and donate all the items.
“Our living room got a little crowded, but it was worth it,” said Jason.
During one of the deliveries, the food bank’s CEO, Michael Flood, helped unload the car and sort donations. A member of the security team also helped unload by retrieving additional boxes and pallets to transport the donations from the car.
“It felt good to be able to help out our local communities and to see all the communities coming together to help everyone impacted by the wildfires,” said Jason.
The January 2025 southern California wildfires have since been contained, but wildfires and other natural disasters continue to bring devastation around the world. In North America alone, more than 20 million acres of land have been impacted by wildfires as of August 2025.
Recovery efforts often continue long after initial disaster relief. For example, areas affected by wildfires experience increased risk of flooding and landslides.
