Acts of service amidst the flames: Los Angeles

When the flames rise, so do the people.

The current wildfires ravaging Los Angeles have been horrific - they’ve scorched landscapes, destroyed homes and displaced thousands. But amidst all that devastation, lots of stories of resilience are emerging. Communities have stepped up with neighbourly kindness, grassroots organising, and a commitment to collective strength.

This is nothing new. The Lord of the Flies book, of kids turning on each other in a crisis, is a grumpy myth. In Humankind, A Hopeful History, Rutger Bregman digs into the data and shows that, in the face of a crisis, people don’t become self-serving sociopaths. Instead they band together and help one another. Often in extraordinary ways. “It's when crisis hits - when the bombs fall or the floodwaters rise - that we humans become our best selves.”

Yes a minority will always go looting, but amidst tragedy, an inspiring truth always emerges: disasters very often bring out the best in people and reveal the power of connection.

The Crisis Unfolds

California is no stranger to wildfires. In 2020 alone, over 4.5 million acres were consumed by flames—a stark reminder of the escalating climate crisis. The current fires in Los Angeles, driven by unrelenting Santa Ana winds and tinder-dry vegetation, have forced thousands to flee, with many more anxiously watching as the infernos approach their homes. Even the residents of my alma mater, UCLA, are being warned they may have to evacuate. The physical and emotional toll of these growing disasters is profound.

But as Amanda Ripley highlights in her book The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—and Why, the human response to disaster often defies our assumptions. Ripley dismantles the myth that chaos leads to selfishness and panic, instead emphasizing how crises inspire altruism and cooperation. “Disasters are like a fast-forward button,” Ripley writes. “They reveal, in stark relief, what we value most.”

Grassroots Movements and Local Heroes

Nowhere is this more evident than in the grassroots efforts blossoming across Los Angeles. In neighborhoods like Topanga Canyon and Malibu, residents have organized food drives, opened their homes to evacuees, and set up impromptu relief centers. Stories abound of people delivering supplies to stranded neighbors and even forming local fire-watch teams.

Ripley’s research supports this instinct. She notes that in disasters, ordinary people often become first responders, stepping in to fill gaps left by overwhelmed emergency services. “Survivors don’t wait for official help—they go where they are needed,” Ripley explains. This dynamic is playing out across Los Angeles, where grassroots services are bridging the gaps in official disaster response. The same happened in New Orleans back during the floods, when formal public services totally failed, so normal people took it upon themselves to fill the gap.

Helping everything, not just everyone

Perhaps the most emotional scenes being shared, are of people saving animals from the flames.

Also this

Seva is the ancient sanskrit concept of "service" or "dedication to others". It's a concept that involves helping others without expecting anything in return. It’s a central part of Hinduism and Sikhism, where it's seen as a way to serve God by serving humanity, but it’s also the best word for what we’re seeing here.

Seva is more than serving others. It’s about serving all things in the universe, without concern for oneself. It may sound lofty, but this is the instinct we’re seeing on these screens.

Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Freud, uses an alternative term: “Gemeinschaftsgefühl”.

a community feeling where one feels they belong with others and have an ecological connection with nature and the cosmos.

I’m not sure why this self-less urge is triggered in a crisis, but thank goodness it is.

Why Resilience Thrives in Adversity

One of Ripley’s most compelling arguments is that humans are wired for connection, and disasters amplify this tendency. She recounts numerous studies showing how shared adversity strengthens social bonds. This phenomenon, known as “collective efficacy,” is vital to recovery.

“Disasters do not create a blank slate,” Ripley writes. “They magnify what is already there.” In Los Angeles, this means neighborhoods with strong pre-existing networks have responded faster and more cohesively than those without them. The same happened in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina. The emergency services were notoriously slow to respond, so ordinary people filled the gap. There have been umpteen academic studies proving this: here, here and here. Communities with a history of social interaction recover more quickly from crises.

Lessons for the Future

The Los Angeles wildfires underscore the need for proactive resilience-building. Ripley advocates for disaster preparedness that emphasizes community engagement, arguing that well-connected neighborhoods fare better in crises. Programs like New Zealand’s post-earthquake “Resilient Cities” initiative, which trained residents in disaster response, offer a model for how Los Angeles could prepare for future challenges.

For individuals, the lesson is clear: resilience begins long before disaster strikes. Building relationships, participating in local networks, and fostering a culture of mutual aid can make all the difference when adversity arrives.

This requires two things:

1. Stop buying into the idea that we’re all rational selfish economic actors - that’s nonsense dreamt up by economists. In a crisis we’ll put ourselves last.

2. Expect in a crisis for the physical reality of local networks to overwhelm the intermediated online relationships we’ve learnt to depend on,

Conclusion

Rutger Bregman cites an old proverb:

An old man says to his grandson: “There’s a fight going on inside me. It’s a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil – angry, greedy, jealous, arrogant, and cowardly. The other is good – peaceful, loving, modest, generous, honest, and trustworthy. These two wolves are also fighting within you, and inside every other person too.” After a moment, the boy asks, “Which wolf will win?” The old man smiles. “The one you feed.”

This past week you’d be excused for thinking the world is run by selfish, self-serving individuals, using their power to manipulate world events. But the rich and powerful don’t represent normal people. Here’s Bregman again:

People in power literally act like someone with brain damage. Not only are they more impulsive, self-centred, reckless, arrogant and rude than average, they are more likely to cheat on their spouses, are less attentive to other people and less interested in others’ perspectives. They’re also more shameless.

And this personal view ends up shaping their own world view.

Dictators and despots, governors and generals - they all too often resort to brute force to prevent scenarios that exist only in their own heads, on the assumption that the average Joe is ruled by self-interest, just like them.

But the fires, tragic though they are, prove the opposite. Put under pressure, people aren’t selfish - they’re selfless. Pro-social behaviour massively outweighs anti-social behaviour. ¹

Amanda Ripley writes, “Survival is a social process.” The wildfires in Los Angeles prove this to be true. Movies, games and TV shows would have us believe that the lone outrider survives the apocalyptic event off of his or her wits. But the opposite is true - strongly connected social communities do best.

From café owners to volunteer firefighters, ordinary Angelenos are showing this - that resilience isn’t just about bouncing back—it’s about building forward, together. It’s the remarkable instinct people have to serve each other in a crisis. In the ashes of destruction, that’s the real human strength that rises.

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