Wildfire Evacuation Analysis Using Facebook Data: Evidence from Palisades and Eaton Fires
Shangkun Jiang, Ruggiero Lovreglio, Thomas J. Cova, Sangung Park, Susu Xu, Xilei Zhao

TL;DR
This study leverages high-resolution Facebook data to analyze wildfire evacuation behaviors during the 2025 Palisades and Eaton Fires, revealing spatiotemporal patterns, disparities, and social vulnerabilities to inform emergency planning.
Contribution
It introduces a comprehensive framework and a new Damage-Evacuation Disparity Index (DEDI) to assess evacuation compliance and disparities using social media data.
Findings
Residents closer to fires evacuated earlier
Late or nighttime evacuation orders reduced compliance
Communities with higher social vulnerability showed lower evacuation compliance
Abstract
The growing frequency and intensity of wildfires pose serious threats to communities in wildland-urban interface regions. Understanding evacuation behavior is critical for effective emergency planning. This study analyzes evacuation during the 2025 Palisades and Eaton Fires using high-resolution Facebook data. We propose a comprehensive framework to derive wildfire evacuation-related metrics, including compliance rate, departure timing, delay, origin-destination flows, travel distance, and destination types. A new metric, Damage-Evacuation Disparity Index (DEDI), identifies areas with severe structural damage but low evacuation compliance. Results reveal spatiotemporal heterogeneity: residents closer to the fire evacuated earlier, whereas late or nighttime orders led to lower compliance and longer delays. Contrasting patterns between East and West Altadena further illustrate this…
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Taxonomy
TopicsEvacuation and Crowd Dynamics · Injury Epidemiology and Prevention · Fire effects on ecosystems
