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EquipmentShare is in the business of building better communities. But the company’s commitment to the communities it calls home goes beyond business, and that is never more apparent than when natural disasters strike.
The latest example was the response to the wildfires that devastated Los Angeles in January 2025. On the local level, the immediate relief efforts of EquipmentShare team members and their families were so remarkable that they earned official recognition from a state senator. On the corporate level, a generous donation from the EquipmentShare Foundation will provide lasting support for Angelenos in need.
This is the story about how EquipmentShare team members across the company took action to help during trying times.
‘Do anything’
Standing behind EquipmentShare’s branch in Whittier, California, which he leads as the general manager, Gerardo Romero could look toward the mountains and see huge plumes of smoke from the Eaton Fire. On the morning of Friday, Jan. 10 — the fourth day of fires burning out of control around LA — Romero decided he couldn’t keep watching without doing something to help.
He saw a TikTok social media post from a man named Allen Gharakhani who was giving away hot dogs from a cart in the Rose Bowl parking lot. Romero hopped in his truck, tracked down Gharakhani in the parking lot and asked what he could do to help.
“Do anything,” he was told.
Romero took that open-ended suggestion and ran with it. With the full support of his bosses, he put the word out to other Los Angeles area EquipmentShare branches that he would be setting up grills and serving food.
“There was zero hesitation from all my bosses all the way to the top,” Romero said. “Yes, yes, yes is all I got. That was amazing to see.”
Finding the right location took some patience and perseverance. Volunteers had to leave the Rose Bowl to make room for the arrival of the National Guard. Another location was overwhelmed with volunteers and had to shut down. Eventually, the owner of Santa Anita Park, one of the nation’s legendary horse racing tracks, offered the use of its huge parking lot.
The EquipmentShare team set up shop late on that Friday night, bringing in three light towers to illuminate the dimly lit and sparsely filled parking lot. Over the weekend, as word got out, the scene in that parking lot grew from a handful of do-gooders distributing food and donated items into a mini-city of food vendors and volunteers serving their neighbors in need. By Sunday, the lot was packed with people and the line of cars arriving to donate supplies stretched for more than a mile.
“It went from a couple of people serving hot dogs and grilling to a massive event,” Romero said. “The residents of Altadena who lost everything would come and pick up supplies, but as they were picking up, they felt the energy from the community and they decided to volunteer as well.”
Romero still smiles when he thinks back on what organically happened in that parking lot, which he called “an outpouring of togetherness and love.” The EquipmentShare team was at the center of the action, as employees and their family members worked the grills, served food and made grocery store runs. EquipmentShare volunteers fed more than 1,000 people per day for five days.
“What Gerardo did was nothing short of amazing,” said Regional Operations Director Travis Johnson, who flew in from his home in Wyoming to join the effort. “He would be the first one out there before 7 in the morning, and he wouldn’t shut it down until after 8 at night. He had a bunch of his family members out there. I know the people like me in director roles were wondering how we were going to pull all this together, and we said, ‘Hey, Gerardo, go see what you can find out.’ He just ran with it and went the extra mile.”
Helping Habitat
When the wildfires started, Anshul Sharma was visiting his sister and new nephew across the country in New Hampshire. He watched news coverage with increasing dread. Although his Culver City home was out of harm’s way, several friends had to evacuate. He arrived back in Los Angeles to an apocalyptic scene.
“I remember flying in and seeing the fires in the Palisades while the flight was coming into LAX,” said Sharma, who is EquipmentShare’s director of business development. “There was literally ash raining from the sky.”
A few weeks later, he met someone from Habitat For Humanity of Greater Los Angeles and signed up to participate in one of its house-building projects. While he was volunteering, he mentioned that he worked for an equipment rental company.
“I had seen our local efforts and what Gerardo was doing, and I thought there might be even more we could do,” Sharma said. “Within a week, I was chatting with some of the vice presidents and senior VPs of Habitat LA.”
Sharma learned that Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles had recently been given access to a 120,000-square-food warehouse to store the food, clothes, household goods and construction materials for its ReBUILD LA campaign. But the organization needed forklifts, a scissor lift and pallet jacks to move materials and manage the warehouse — and it needed them quickly because donated items were rolling in.
Sharma called Amy Susán, EquipmentShare’s company ambassador and director of PR & Communications, and explained the situation.
“We’ve had a good relationship with Habitat for Humanity from the onset of our company because it just makes sense,” Susán said. “We’re in the business of building and rebuilding, and what better group to do that with than Habitat for Humanity, which makes home ownership possible and is also an organization that’s dedicated to natural disaster response.”
Susán pitched to EquipmentShare’s leadership team the idea of a donation that would cover a year of equipment rentals for the warehouse. Within a few weeks, a $50,000 check from the EquipmentShare Foundation — the nonprofit organization supported by the company and its employees — was on its way to California.
“That was an awesome feeling,” Sharma said. “I asked one person one time, ‘Can we help them?’ And the result was more than I ever expected. A lot of pride that we were able to help them.”
In it for the long haul
Rebuilding the devastated communities, including Altadena and Pacific Palisades, will be a long process. The first step was removing hazardous materials, which the Environmental Protection Agency completed in February. The next step — which is ongoing under the direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local agencies — involves removing burned debris and topsoil.
With thousands of homes burned in the fires, it’s a massive undertaking. People who lost their homes will need support for an extended period. EquipmentShare wants to continue to play a role in the recovery.
For Romero, that means using his branch’s community engagement budget to support Angelenos in Action, the nonprofit Gharakhani started, which offers long-term help to people displaced by the wildfires. EquipmentShare provides an annual $2,500 budget to each of its more than 300 branches to support worthy causes in their communities.
EquipmentShare’s short- and long-term relief efforts didn’t go unnoticed. Romero and the company were featured in media reports about the Santa Anita donation center. On Feb. 23, Romero, Sharma and other EquipmentShare wildfire relief volunteers were back at Santa Anita Park, this time to receive a certificate of recognition from California State Sen. Sasha Renee Perez.
The certificate commended EquipmentShare, saying, “Your significant commitment and contributions to the livelihoods of those in need during heart-wrenching times is truly commendable.” After receiving the certificate, the EquipmentShare team presented the check for $50,000 from the EquipmentShare Foundation to Habit for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles for its ReBUILD LA campaign.
A few days later, EquipmentShare forklifts were unloading trucks and moving materials around the ReBUILD LA warehouse.
“EquipmentShare had the tools we needed to start receiving and getting stuff done in the warehouse to make it functional,” said Angy Smith, the senior vice president for retail operations for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles. “They’ve been extremely responsive and helpful. We truly want to be there for Angelenos until they’re back on their feet and in a home, and EquipmentShare has been instrumental in helping us stay on track.”
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