Psychosocial impact of disasters: Victims of the Baldwin Hills fire

A major fire occurred in the Baldwin Hills community of Los Angeles that resulted in the destruction of 50 homes. The life of this Black middle class community was seriously disrupted by this fire. Twenty-five victims of the fire were interviewed using a modified version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule/Disaster Supplement and the Impact of Event Scale. Subjects reported on their emotional, psychosomatic, and physical health problems resulting from the fire. Additional information obtained by the interviewers included victims' opinions of media coverage of the event, attribution of blame for its occurrence and perception of community disruption. This study supports previous findings that exposure to the event is significantly related to the number of post-traumatic stress symptoms as reported on the DIS/DS, and that depression symptoms, which were widespread, were correlated with the extent of loss.