Microbusinesses in the path of January’s Eaton and Palisades fires bore the brunt of the impact to the local business community in both areas, and those that were not destroyed remain vulnerable, a UCLA research series found .

Silvia González, director of research at the UCLA Latino Policy Institute, said the research series was done through a collaboration with UCLA’s Center for Neighborhood Knowledge , which provided the expertise in tracking neighborhood level changes.

Microbusinesses, described as those with one to nine employees, accounted for one-third to one-half of the businesses destroyed in both fire areas. González described microbusinesses as the backbones of both local economies, particularly in Altadena.

“The vulnerability was not just for those businesses that are

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