For survivors of mega-wildfires that burn entire neighborhoods and those living in nearby communities, property damage and smoke inhalation may be just the first of many ways the blazes wreak havoc on their lives.

In a new study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers describe some of these long-term and often overlooked effects of wildfires, which can range from housing shortages and unemployment to mental health conditions that don’t surface until months or years after the final flames are extinguished.

The study’s findings were compiled from interviews with 21 health and social services providers who assisted in wildfire recovery efforts in California in 2017 and 2018.

Here, lead author Annie Rosenthal, a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare’s Masters program, and senior author Rohini Haar, an emergency room physician who also serves as a research fellow at Berkeley Law’s Human Rights Center and a lecturer at Berkeley’s School of Public Health, talk about the long shadow wildfire can cast on affected communities, and how recovery efforts don’t always provide enough support.

Read the full article about impacts of wildfires by Kara Manke at Futurity.