Data Under Pressure: Orchestrating Multi-Platform Emergency Response During the LA Wildfires
When LA's 2025 wildfires threatened animal shelters, Best Friends Animal Society used integrated data systems—Tableau dashboards, Airtable workflows, CRM platforms, and geospatial mapping—to coordinate emergency response. This case study reveals how existing business intelligence tools enabled real-time decision-making that ultimately saved 2,037 animals across three major fires.
Tiffany Deaton
Director of National Operations at Best Friends Animal Society
Michelle Dunivan, PhD
Sr. Director Insights & Analytics at Best Friends Animal Society
In early 2025, the Hughes, Palisades, and Eaton fires devastated Los Angeles, creating an unprecedented crisis for animal welfare organizations. Best Friends Animal Society coordinated shelter evacuations, animal relocations, volunteer deployment, and resource allocation across a 47,000-acre disaster zone using integrated data systems.
This session examines how Best Friends leveraged NOAA fire mapping with Tableau dashboards to track real-time boundaries against shelter locations and transport routes. Shelter Management Software and CRM systems coordinated animal movements, while Airtable workflows managed hundreds of volunteers. Workday systems enabled rapid financial decision-making during the crisis.
The coordinated response directly impacted 2,037 animals: 509 direct intakes, 63 pre-fire transfers, and 1,465 stipend-supported relocations.
Attendees will learn:
• Multi-platform integration strategies for coordinating diverse data systems during crisis situations
• Real-time decision-making frameworks using business intelligence tools for emergency response
• Scalable volunteer coordination through structured data workflows and automated communications
• Human-in-the-loop approaches that balance predictive analytics with critical human judgment
• Post-crisis impact measurement techniques for quantifying humanitarian outcomes and improving future response capabilities