In the early hours of January 8, as the Eaton Fire began its aggressive spread across Southern California, UOVO Los Angeles Operations Manager Miranda Burns quickly realized this was no ordinary emergency. As a leader in secure art storage, UOVO’s climate-controlled facilities are designed to protect collections from disasters. However, what followed was an unprecedented challenge—one that would showcase the extraordinary measures the team took to protect the valuable collections entrusted to UOVO’s care.
“I had some experience with art handling in proximity to a natural disaster because of my time in Florida,” Burns explains. “We have a lot of systems in place for hurricanes and a deep understanding of when the team is safe to go out and when it’s best that they remain at home.” But the January wildfires presented new challenges. “This was unprecedented, I think, for everyone,” Burns recalls. “Even our people in UOVO San Francisco who were more familiar with this were saying that this felt like a once-in-a-lifetime situation.”
Handling Crisis with Care, Precision, and Expertise
For the UOVO LA team, the fires required quickly adapting to evacuation zones, movement patterns, and rapidly changing access restrictions. “One of the biggest challenges was access,” Burns notes. “Things are changing constantly. You might see on Google Maps that a route is open, but it’ll change in the afternoon. Or you need a certain pass to get through, or there’s now a downed power line and they’re doing repairs.”
This challenge was compounded by the emotional nature of the situation. “You’re dealing with people who are watching their whole neighborhoods burn down,” Burns explains. “They might be the last house standing in an entire neighborhood. The winds were constantly changing, so they had fear that things were going to change very rapidly and their house wasn’t going to be there anymore.”
Burns spent countless hours monitoring news broadcasts, studying fire maps, and tracking aerial firefighting operations to understand the terrain and determine safe access routes for the team. When direct access wasn’t possible, the team coordinated meeting points outside restricted areas.
Burns explains: “We had to find ways to efficiently help clients without sending our team into danger. Sometimes that looked like meeting people outside of the zones—if clients could get their own teams to meet us outside the danger area, we could get the artwork, ensuring everyone’s safety.”The storage facility also extended operating hours to accommodate urgent needs, offering early morning and late evening drop-off options. “We were available for whatever needs arose,” Burns said.
Beyond strategic planning, UOVO quickly secured appropriate safety equipment—full Tyvek suits, respirators, and goggles—ensuring team members could work safely in smoke-affected areas while protecting both themselves and the valuable artwork they handled.
Lessons in Resilience and Team Spirit
For Burns, this crisis affirmed core principles of art logistics: thorough planning, detailed scope development, and contingency preparation. “This reinforces the need to really understand the scope, deep planning,” she reflects. “That’s just a part of what we do in art logistics anyway. There are always so many unknowns, but it just kind of reinforces the need to really buckle down and make sure that you have all the details.”
As natural disasters like wildfires become more frequent, Burns encourages collectors and galleries to adopt a preparedness mindset. “Taking preventative measures, establishing relationships with secure art storage companies like UOVO, having those contracts in place when possible,” she suggests.
What stands out most to Burns when reflecting on this challenging period isn’t just the logistics and problem-solving—it’s the remarkable attitude of the UOVO team. “I think the biggest takeaway is that this team, this region—they really hit it out of the park. Everybody came together. Everybody understood the assignment,” she said with pride. “There were times when I would have thought that people would be more grumbly, working nonstop. But everybody’s spirits were high. I think everybody felt they were doing something important.”