Explainer: How limited language access harms residents during California’s wildfires

This article belongs to a larger series on California wildfires and climate change.

By: Yannie Gia-Nhi Hoàng

On March 1, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14224, “Designating English as the Official Language of the United States.” This reversed President Bill Clinton’s Executive Order 13166, signed in 2000, that aimed to increase language accessibility for limited English proficiency (LEP) individuals across federal agencies.

Since Trump’s second presidency began this January, the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) plans to provide multilingual emergency alerts have been halted. This leaves LEP communities vulnerable to future and inevitable natural disasters like wildfires.

For California, which has the largest Vietnamese population in the U.S. and a large LEP population, both Trump’s Executive Order and the FCC’s halted plans prevent evacuations and other emergency responses. With the state experiencing annual wildfires, these barriers are especially concerning for people’s safety.

A reversal of progress

California’s 2025 wildfires were some of the most destructive fires ever recorded in the state. Increasing greenhouse gas emissions from global warming, which is fueling climate change, have raised average temperatures in California. Not only has climate change made California more vulnerable to wildfires, but it has also made wildfires more intense and frequent in recent years.

Before Trump’s Executive Order, the FCC had planned to add more than a dozen languages—in addition to English and American Sign Language—to the federal emergency alert system. The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau had also “developed templates for critical disaster alerts in the 13 most commonly spoken languages in the US,” including Vietnamese. Commercial phone service providers that support Wireless Emergency Alerts would have been required to support these multilingual emergency messages.

Since this reversal in progress, California Representative Nanette Diaz Barragán has publicly expressed concern, including in a letter to Brendan Carr, the Republican FCC chair. Before taking leadership of the FCC under the Trump administration, Carr had supported language accessibility efforts. Barragán’s letter discussed how delivering multilingual emergency information would save lives and was co-signed by members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

As Barragán told the L.A. Times, “We shouldn’t be looking at any politicization of alerts—certainly not because someone’s an immigrant or they don’t know English.”

Why does language accessibility matter?

This year alone, wildfires have displaced tens of thousands of Californians and killed at least 29. Nearly 50,000 Asian Americans lived in the major Los Angeles County evacuation zones for the 2025 wildfires, making up 15% of the total population in these areas, according to a data brief by UCLA researchers and Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Equity Alliance. Los Angeles is the top metropolitan area for Vietnamese Americans, and Southern California has “the largest Vietnamese population in the U.S.” overall.

Over 12,000 of the 50,000 total Asian Americans living in major evacuation zones had LEP and needed language assistance. LEP is defined by the government as not speaking English “as their main language” and having “limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand English.”

These language needs affect over a third of the more than 1.4 million LEP Asian American residents in Los Angeles County, of which 93% were born outside of the U.S. These gaps in language accessibility and demographic statistics indicate a need for more inclusivity in California’s emergency response systems.

LEP rates also “vary significantly by ethnicity, age, and geography,” which complicates outreach. Vietnamese Americans, for instance, have the highest LEP rates of many Asian American groups in Los Angeles County. Over 12,000 Asian people ages 5 and older qualify as LEP, representing over a quarter of the Asian population in these areas.

Figure 2: Percentage of Limited English Proficient Asian Americans by Ethnicity in Los Angeles County
Note: CHL includes Cambodian, Hmong, and Laotian populations.
Source: Author’s tabulations based on the 2019-2023 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS).

A study from February 2025 showed that older LEP Asian Americans “[experienced] significantly higher rates of limited English proficiency (61%) compared with younger generations (15%).” They are also more likely than other Asian American age groups to have specific needs related to disability. Without support from local, state, or national emergency response, these needs can compound and become multilayered accessibility concerns during evacuations.

Figure 3: Percentage of Limited English Proficient Asian Americans by Age Group in Los Angeles County
Source: Author’s tabulations based on the 2019-2023 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS).

It should also be noted that “LEP individuals are not evenly distributed across the evacuation zones.” For instance, the Palisades evacuation zone “has the highest proportion of LEP Asians, approaching 30%.”

How does LEP affect California’s emergency response?

Lack of access for LEP residents leaves gaps in critical communication and safe, time-sensitive evacuations that may be the difference between life and death. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, those with LEP “often face worse health care outcomes because of access and communication barriers.”

During California’s January 2025 wildfires, many Asian residents avoided evacuation centers because no language assistance was provided through interpreters or online, as Manjusha Kulkarni, Executive Director of AAPI Equity Alliance, told the Los Angeles Times.

How can emergency personnel improve language accessibility?

Regular assessments for language needs in fire evacuation zones are recommended by the UCLA researchers and AAPI Equity Alliance. As part of this process, researchers who understand the local cultures collect and review community data to help the government make more informed decisions. Collaborating with community organizations and creating groups to gather feedback from community members are also necessary, according to the report.

Additionally, technology should complement—not replace—human translators, according to Gotham Lab, a New York-based translation and media localization company. Quick translations during emergencies are important, but so are culturally and linguistically accurate communication. Gotham Lab also notes that first responders, government workers, and other emergency personnel should schedule language-sensitive emergency drills regularly to exercise how to navigate linguistic and cultural challenges.

California fire departments and community organizations can also apply for grants for wildfire safety and preparedness projects, via the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and the California Fire Foundation (CFF). $1.65 million has been given to the CFF’s Wildfire Safety and Preparedness Program (WSPP), which serves marginalized communities in areas at risk of wildfires. Since 2018, WSPP has helped fund fire safety outreach campaigns. These campaigns have created thousands of brochures, billboards, and ads in languages such as Vietnamese.

Overall, community members, researchers, and advocates call for building a more inclusive, data-informed disaster response framework for more effective and intentional action in the future.

California’s government has successfully improved language accessibility for emergency communication before. After the 2017 wildfires, California introduced Listos California, a state program partnered with community groups that shared emergency information during COVID-19.

As Kulkarni of AAPI Equity Alliance told the L.A. Times, “Language is a critical component of providing resources and services.”

“Let’s do this right.”

What can people do to improve language accessibility?

Rather than reinvent the wheel, residents can channel their efforts toward uplifting groups that are already working toward achieving language accessibility. They can support organizations, such as AAPI Equity Alliance and the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, and their ongoing work to increase Vietnamese language accessibility.

Local and national elected leaders also impact how wildfires and other natural disasters are handled. In the wake of the devastating January wildfires, President Trump threatened to cut federal aid to California this year unless the state changes its policies on water, forestry, immigration, and voter ID. This potential cut would eliminate many jobs and impact vulnerable communities, such as Vietnamese Americans. Trump’s Executive Order 14224 and his appointment of Carr as FCC Chairman have also halted efforts to increase language accessibility.

In the face of these threats, elected officials can use their platform and tax dollars to advocate for marginalized communities. They can support funding for necessary research on the consequences of climate change, redlining, and accessibility, as well as their often disproportionate effects on minority communities like Vietnamese Americans.

As former FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said, “The language you speak shouldn’t keep you from receiving the information you or your family need to stay safe.”