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Shamika Ossey provides critical assistance during LA County fire response as Emergency Preparedness Public Health Nurse

Shamika Mossey appears with a purple zoom background. Shamika is wearing glasses and a white blazer with a black dress shirt.
Shamika Ossey

As massive fires raged throughout Los Angeles County and beyond, Shamika Ossey soon found herself in the thick of the relief effort. Having worked as an Emergency Preparedness Public Health Nurse with LA County since 2012, Ossey was no stranger to crisis response – so it made perfect sense when she initially was assigned to staff a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center in West Los Angeles at the UCLA Research Park West.

“It was a one-stop shop for residents that have been affected by the wildfires,” Ossey said. “Specifically, our role was medication assistance. We were helping those individuals reconnect with their prescribed medications – getting a prescription transferred to a different pharmacy or connecting them with tele-help to get new medication. Some don’t have a primary care doctor, so we’re able to get them a tele-health appointment.”

Evacuation from a natural disaster can be very chaotic, as many affected fire victims unfortunately learned. Ossey and her fellow Emergency Preparedness Public Health Nurses played a key role in establishing some normalcy for them during this uncertain time.

David Esquivel/UCLA

Evacuation from a natural disaster can be very chaotic, as many affected fire victims unfortunately learned. Ossey and her fellow Emergency Preparedness Public Health Nurses played a key role in establishing some normalcy for them during this uncertain time.

“We’re helping them navigate that bridge communication for individuals who evacuated with some of their medication but not all,” Ossey explained. “There are some that are impacted by those pharmacies being impacted by the fire. So, we have to have those medications transferred.”

Ossey also participated in two community meetings for fire victims – one at the Sinai Temple in West Los Angeles for Pacific Palisades fire victims and another at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena for Altadena fire victims.

“Both meetings were well-attended,” Ossey said. “At the Eaton Fire community meeting, they even had monitors in the lobby so people could listen. We provided health information, respirators and also did consultations. People will ask for specific information – if they’re returning home, they want to know what they should be concerned about.”

Ossey eventually was assigned to staff the Malibu/Pacific Palisades Repopulation Checkpoint on the Pacific Coast Highway.

“I’ll be the lead at the Malibu checkpoint,” Ossey said. “We’ll be working in the open outside, pretty much on a highway. Knowing what the needs are ahead of time helps – like bathrooms. Because we’ll be in an area where those are remote, staff will need to drive to get there. And it shouldn’t be just one person working – it should be a team for when people need a break, a few folks working on these shifts. We will be standing and walking a line of cars. It’s not a community center. We need to make sure our safety is primary because we don’t want to get injured in the process.”

A photo of a crowd inside the West LA Disaster Recovery Center. A man speaks to the crowd with a "Welcome to the Discovery Recovery Center" banner in the background. A UCLA sign is also in the background.
David Esquivel/UCLA

The fires indirectly affected Ossey when her asthmatic son developed breathing problems due to poor air quality and had to be taken to the ER. But a co-worker and fellow union member who lost her home to fire later described to Ossey how the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trainings that Ossey had held made a direct and positive impact during the evacuation.

“The Registered Nurses bargain on Tuesdays,” Ossey explained. “One of our nurses – she’s a Chair – she lost everything. She only had the clothes in a go-bag that she was able to put together. This nurse said, “All I could think of what I had learned at CERT. I thought about you when I was grabbing my stuff leaving the house. I couldn’t see anything and knew I had to leave.” It was a few years ago that she took that training. It helps us to know that we do does matter. She knew what to have and what to grab in her bag for her and her family.”