Building Capacity to Respond and Recover

This month’s column provides insight into environmental health’s response to the 2015 Butte Fire in California. In studying this event, we see two capacity building activities of note: 1) the securing of mutual aid through existing, well-maintained networks of environmental health professionals; and 2) the consolidation and curation of digital results concerning the event and the services that took place. These activities can be integrated by environmental health programs across the country to aid in response and recovery endeavors.