{
  "id": "2025-01-08-emerson-college-los-angeles-wildfire",
  "slug": "emerson-college-los-angeles-wildfire-2025-01-08",
  "institution": {
    "name": "Emerson College",
    "shortName": "Emerson",
    "state": "MA",
    "type": "private-masters",
    "alertSystemName": "Emerson Today",
    "enrollment": 5800
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2025-01-08",
    "type": "wildfire",
    "cleryCategory": "advisory",
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat",
    "headline": "A nearby wildfire shifts one campus to remote operations",
    "headlinePublic": "A nearby wildfire shifts one campus to remote operations",
    "summary": "The president [reported a precautionary evacuation of the Los Angeles building and two days of remote operations](https://today.emerson.edu/2025/01/09/thursday-update-southern-california-wildfires/) after a nearby wildfire.",
    "outcome": "The building was evacuated overnight. The fire department then lifted the zone, and the campus was to operate remotely for two days.",
    "endDate": "2025-01-10"
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "update",
      "timestamp": "2025-01-09T14:00:34-05:00",
      "channel": "website",
      "verbatimText": "To the Emerson community,\n\nI’m writing from Los Angeles with an update on the wildfires and their impact on Emerson Los Angeles (ELA). It is hard to describe the chaotic scenes and the devastating feelings people, including many in Emerson’s extended community, are experiencing in this crisis. Our hearts go out to everyone affected directly or indirectly by these tragic circumstances, and we are grateful for the heroic work of our first responders.\n\nStrong winds and spreading fires last evening, including the Sunset Fire north of the ELA campus, led us to preemptively evacuate the ELA building as a precautionary measure. Several students, staff, and I relocated overnight to a downtown Los Angeles hotel out of an abundance of caution. I want to thank Tim Chang and Chad Hagan Myers, among many others at ELA and in Boston, for their work last evening to support and protect our students and staff.\n\nThe Los Angeles Fire Department has now lifted the Sunset Fire evacuation zone, including the area immediately adjacent to campus. ELA will operate primarily remotely today and tomorrow. We will continue to monitor the situation carefully and remain vigilant to protect the health and safety of our community. As of today, we expect all plans to proceed for ELA’s move-in next week, and we will provide timely updates as long as they are needed to ensure our community remains well-informed.\n\nPlease remember that many resources are available for those in need, both on the ground and through the Emerson Wellness Center, UWill, the Center for Spiritual Life, the Healing & Advocacy Collective, and the Employee Assistance Program.\n\nThank you,\n\nJay Bernhardt\nPresident",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "confidence": "high",
      "sourceUrl": "https://today.emerson.edu/2025/01/09/thursday-update-southern-california-wildfires/",
      "sourceDescription": "Emerson Today",
      "annotations": [
        "Dual fetch 2026-10-12. The live today.emerson.edu URL returns the news index. Two Wayback id_ reads were byte-identical. 1676 characters. sha256 afcae122d9d5efdcf3593bd87e529fb958cc4434adc0ab6fccacdba90204b294.",
        "Existing Wayback capture. SPN not attempted at 11:05Z"
      ],
      "characterCount": 1676
    }
  ],
  "context": "One Emerson Today letter, posted 2025-01-09T14:00:34-05:00 and signed by the president. It reports an evacuation the previous evening and remote operations for that day and the next. The zone had already been lifted. The live host now returns the news index. The letter is locked from two identical Wayback reads.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "The Los Angeles building was evacuated the evening before the letter.",
    "Remote operations were set for two days after the evacuation zone was lifted."
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Emerson Today",
      "url": "https://today.emerson.edu/2025/01/09/thursday-update-southern-california-wildfires/",
      "type": "official-archive",
      "accessDate": "2026-10-12",
      "archiveUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20250114101249id_/https://today.emerson.edu/2025/01/09/thursday-update-southern-california-wildfires/",
      "archiveNotes": "Existing Wayback capture. SPN not attempted at 11:05Z"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "high",
  "tags": [
    "private-masters",
    "massachusetts",
    "wildfire"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-10-12",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-10-12",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}