Amazon opens first wildfire support facility
Amazon is modifying its Disaster Relief Hub model to specifically address the needs of communities affected by wildfires.
Located in the Amazon fulfillment center in Southern California within the San Bernardino Valley, the new hub is designed to enable Amazon to swiftly deploy critical relief supplies in response to wildfires across the U.S.
Amazon opened its first-ever Disaster Relief Hub near Atlanta in June 2021. The main purpose of the facilities is to enable the e-tail giant to use its logistics network to quickly send critical products to nonprofits and community partners in the wake of natural disasters.
"Prepositioning relief supplies is crucial for delivering aid quickly during fast-moving wildfire events," said Alice Shobe, global director of Amazon Community Impact, in a corporate blog post. "This hub’s strategic location near Amazon Air facilities and our ground transportation network ensures that we can efficiently get relief items to disaster response organizations that have a proven ability to receive and distribute these donations to impacted communities."
With the assistance of a number of relief organizations working in wildfire-impacted regions, Amazon leveraged its proprietary data and their forecasts to stock the hub with products that households and individuals need in the aftermath of a fire.
The more than 6,000 stored items include wildfire mitigation equipment such as axes, goggles, masks, rakes, shovels, smoke pumps, and soil sifters; and personal supplies including fire-safe rubber boots, high-particulate matter filtration respirators, hydration packets, neck gaiters, specialized gloves, trauma kits, and other emergency products.
Amazon now operates 14 Disaster Relief Hubs globally, including its first European hub which was opened in Rheinberg, Germany in March 2024. Since 2017, Amazon says it has donated over 24 million relief items to support more than 160 disasters worldwide.
[READ MORE: Amazon opens emergency supply facility in Germany]
In addition to deploying relief items, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Disaster Response team has leveraged cloud technology to help communities assess fire damage, monitor new hot spots, track emerging fires, and use aerial surveillance to create maps that aid in decision-making and preventative response efforts.
