California wildfire news has shifted largely to insurance matters, runoff challenges and, alas, wildfire risks of the upcoming summer. For those who were there, however, the disaster itself is still at the forefront.

When TCU’s Leadership, Executive & Administrative Development (LEAD) program participants arrived in Los Angeles to study community policing, they found themselves amid a real-time crisis as wildfires engulfed the region. This unexpected turn provided them with invaluable insights into emergency management, interagency collaboration, and the resilience of first responders.