The Los Angeles Wildfire’s Hammer has already hit crew members

Dutch Merrick fought to save her house for hours on Tuesday night and well into Wednesday morning. As one of the wildfires currently ravaging the LA area, the Eaton fire that targeted his neighborhood in Altadena, California, the veteran prop master and armorer did what he could – constantly watering his roof, plants and the dry leaves on his lawn with a hose in an attempt to repel the flames. Eventually, a hailstorm of embers and ash began engulfing his neighborhood, and he fled before the sun rose Wednesday.

Although he doesn’t know for sure yet, Merrick is pretty sure his home is now gone. It’s a bitter pill to swallow after what he describes as a series of challenges for workers like himself in the entertainment industry: the COVID-19 pandemic, the twin strikes in 2023 and the damaging production slowdown that followed. In the past few years, he has adapted by launching new business ventures, including a gun kit safety workshop and a live-fire course. But all his material for those classes was in his house and, he believes, has gone up in smoke. Merrick now feels he has to start over – again. “I keep reinventing myself. And this just kicked me in the gut,” he says.

He is not alone. For local crew members who have made it through a grueling few years, the wildfires in LA have brought devastating new challenges. Simultaneous flames have burned tens of thousands of acres in the LA area in less than two days, prompting the evacuation of more than 100,000 people and destroying over 1,000 structures, some of which were home to entertainment workers.

“So many members of the entertainment community and members of IA have been struggling since COVID,” said Mike Miller, the vice president of the major cast union IATSE and the director of its film and television division. “And that’s just going to make these fights worse.” Miller estimates that at least hundreds of his union members are living in evacuation zones in the county.

As of press time, the largest blaze, the Palisades Fire — which began in the affluent oceanfront community of Pacific Palisades — had spread to more than 15,000 acres and was zero percent contained. Farther east, the Eaton fire had consumed more than 10,000 acres in an area including Altadena and the Sierra Madre and was also zero percent contained.

While stars and executives like Billy Crystal, Tom Hanks and Ann Sarnoff have long been known to live in the Palisades, Merrick points out that many people in the entertainment industry also live in Altadena. “We have a whole Altadena film community with our own Facebook group, and it’s this amazing, beautiful little enclave of homes from the 1870s, 1920s, 1950s. It’s like this architectural gem covered in trees, hidden off the beaten path,” he says. On Wednesday, This is us star Mandy Moore wrote on social media that she had fled and lost her home in Altadena.

Diego Mariscal, a dolly grip who is also the administrator of the popular Facebook and Instagram account Crew storiestells that four close friends lost their homes as a result of the wildfires. One of those houses, in Altadena, was used as an exterior location for a series he’s working on now, Apples Shrinks. “It’s surreal,” he says. “This really puts everyone on a level playing field. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich, poor or anything. It doesn’t take sides. It just takes everything.”

As the fires raged Wednesday, the IATSE Local 80 union opened its Burbank soundstage to community members as a crisis center. The international union, meanwhile, on Tuesday evening activated its Disaster Preparedness Committee, which approves emergency financial aid for members deeply affected by these situations.

But even crew members who are not evacuated from their homes will likely feel the effects of the wildfires over the next few days. On Wednesday, the LA County Fire Department called for the withdrawal of all film and television production permits in Altadena, La Crescenta, La Canada/Flintridge and unincorporated Pasadena. Entertainment companies quickly moved to cancel ongoing work in the county on series like ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and Jimmy Kimmel Live!Max’s Hacks and NBCs Suits: LA.

While it is unclear how long these production stoppages will continue, they come on the heels of major production declines that have reduced work opportunities for local crew members. Shooting days in the LA area for film fell 48 percent compared to the five-year average in the third quarter of 2024, while for television they fell more than 53 percent. As a result, some entertainment workers have fled the industry for more stable occupations or left LA altogether.

In an effort to bring entertainment jobs back to California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed handing over the state’s film and television tax credit program. His recommended 2025 budget — which has yet to be approved — would more than double the amount earmarked for film and television production incentives from $330 million to $750 million a year.

Even with the potential sweetener on the horizon, Mariscal, the administrator of Crew Stories, imagines the wildfires could be the last straw for some workers who have stayed behind and have struggled to make ends meet. “I think they’re just going to say, f*ck it. If you barely paid your mortgage and now your house is gone and it was kind of like the golden egg you had for your financial future… it is devastating,” he says. Others, however, will “pick up and set up shop again,” he says. “That’s what people do.”

IATSE leader Miller argues that crew members are no strangers to hardship and that many will ultimately choose the latter option, only more battered and battered. “Our members are robust,” he says. “We’ll be there to support them and I’m confident we’ll be able to get through this. But it will definitely add an extra burden to a lot of people in our industry who are already struggling.”