Violet Affleck was stuck in a hotel room arguing with her mother Jennifer Garner during the California wild fires
The 19-year-old student opened up about her family's experience of the disaster in an essay written for Yale University's student-run Yale Global Health Review in which Violent revealed her mother was "astonished" by the destruction in the family's neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades back in January
22 May 2025
She wrote: "I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room. She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised myself and my siblings.
"I was surprised at her surprise: as a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of generation Z, my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when.
"As I chatted with adults in the hotel where we'd gone to escape the smoke, though, I found my position to be an uncommon one: people spoke of how long rebuilding would take, how much it would cost, and how tragically odd the whole situation had been.
"The crisis was acute, a burst of bad luck. It had come from a combination of high winds and low rains ... "
Violet went on to reveal her younger brother Samuel couldn't understand how climate change could have played a part in the disaster, adding: "What, my little brother asked, did global warming have to do with the speed of the wind?"
She added: "Hopefully, most of us understand the climate crisis better than my little brother."
The teenager is a student at Davenport College and previously spoke out in favour of using face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during a passionate speech at a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting last July.
During her appearance at the meeting, Violet also made a passionate plea for long COVID to be taken seriously - asking for face masks to be worn in public buildings and for increased availability of testing and treatment.
She introduced herself as Violet Affleck, Los Angeles resident, first-time voter and 18."
She went on: "I contracted a post-viral condition in 2019. I'm OK now, but I saw first-hand that medicine does not always have answers to the consequences of even minor viruses. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown that into sharper relief.
"One in 10 infections leads to long COVID, which is a devastating neurological [and] cardiovascular illness that can take away people's ability to work, move, see, and even think."
She added: "To confront the long COVID crisis, I demand mask availability, air filtration and far-UVC light in government facilities, including jails and detention centres, and mask mandates in county medical facilities.
"We must expand the availability of high-quality free tests and treatment and, most importantly, the county must oppose mask bans for any reason.
"They do not keep us safer, they make vulnerable members of our community less safe and make everyone less able to participate in Los Angeles together. Thank you."
Violet is the eldest daughter of Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, who divorced in 2018. The former couple are also parents to younger children Seraphina and Samuel.
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