U.S. Army Corps begins clearing tons of fire debris in Altadena and Pacific Palisades
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In a pivotal milestone in Los Angeles County’s long road to recovery from the deadly wildfires in early January, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday began clearing debris from burned properties in Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
The cleanup marks the start of a years-long rebuilding process for thousands of Californians who lost homes and businesses in the Eaton and Palisades fires. More than 9,400 structures were destroyed in Altadena, and more than 6,800 in Pacific Palisades.
The cleanup will be a massive logistical operation, with thousands of contractors from the Army Corps and private firms working to dispose of as much as 4.5 million tons of fire debris, more than 10 times as much as from the fire that devastated Maui in 2023.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said federal, state and local officials had worked to hack through “bureaucratic thickets” to speed L.A.’s cleanup and recovery process. Debris clearance beginning 35 days after the wildfire was twice as fast as the timeline after the 2018 Woolsey fire, which destroyed more than 1,600 homes in the Thousand Oaks, Oak Park, Agoura Hills and Malibu areas.
“This is unprecedented in California history,” Newsom said at a news conference Tuesday morning in Altadena, alongside Maj. Gen. Jason Kelly of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other state and local officials.
Surrounded by blocks of wreckage, the group stood in the parking lot of a school that appeared miraculously untouched by the flames. But behind them, the fire’s destruction stretched as far as the eye could see, reducing once-vibrant neighborhoods to a lunar landscape of charred homes punctuated with yellow bulldozers and the bright California and U.S. flags.
Altadena’s eclecticism and independent spirit drew residents. After the Eaton fire, they face a crossroads over whether to stay and rebuild their community, or leave.
Margot Stueber of Altadena, whose house was first in line for debris clearance, said she had cried every day since losing her home in Janes Village, a collection of historic 1920s cottages, in the Eaton Fire.
“This is my first happy day,” Stueber told the gaggle of reporters lined up in front of her. She leaned in to hug Newsom after she spoke.
Within a few minutes, workers in vests and hard hats piloting hulking excavator bulldozers would begin collecting the debris, scooping up fields of twisted metal, charred concrete, ash and other unrecognizable remnants of family homes lost in the fires and preparing to truck it away.
But before the Army Corps can clear a property, contractors from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency complete what’s known as “phase one” debris removal, sifting through the rubble to gather potentially hazardous household items — such as paint, propane tanks and lithium ion batteries — that cannot be trucked to normal landfills.
The EPA is working under a Feb. 28 deadline, said Robert Fenton, the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator for Region 9. Newsom said Tuesday that nearly two-thirds of the EPA cleanup will be finished this week. That cleanup is mandatory, and property owners will not be billed, officials said.
Hazardous household items from the burn area are being sorted and temporarily stored at four sites nearby: Irwindale’s Lario Park and the Altadena Golf Course for debris from the Eaton fire, and the former Topanga Ranch Motel and Will Rogers State Beach for the Palisades fire. The debris will stay at those sites until it is shipped to specialized facilities for disposal or recycling.
Before starting fire debris removal, known as “phase two,” the Army Corps needs opt-in paperwork from homeowners who want the corps to clear their land. More than 7,300 L.A. County property owners had completed those forms by Monday, an “unprecedented” number, Fenton said. The paperwork, called right-of-entry forms, are due March 31.
Property owners can also choose to clear debris themselves by paying out of pocket for a specialized, licensed contractor or going through their insurance companies. So far, 315 property owners have opted out of having the government remove their debris, Newsom said.
“The vast majority of people have decided to get this done — it’s done for free,” Newsom said.
The Times investigates California’s response to the devastating wildfires that burned across Los Angeles County in January.
Newsom stressed that different phases of the cleanup are happening concurrently, with debris removal beginning on properties where hazardous waste was already cleared. And eventually, rebuilding can begin even as debris removal continues on nearby properties, Newsom said.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Tuesday that residents can further speed the debris clearance process by organizing with their neighbors to submit opt-in forms for a whole block. That way, she said, the corps “can clear an entire area instead of going house by house.”
Bass joined Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and other officials in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday afternoon as debris clearance began in those devastated neighborhoods. On Livorno Drive, a street in the Palisades overlooking the ocean, dozens of people wearing neon construction vests and hard hats stood by the twisted wreckage of burned homes.
Property owners will receive a phone call three to five days before the corps enters their property, and again a day in advance, said Col. Eric Swenson of the Army Corps on Monday. He said crews will walk around the property when they arrive to tally what debris will be removed. He encouraged property owners to attend the site assessment and talk to the crew about any areas of their property that “they’re interested in us using additional caution around.”
Swenson said general fire ash and debris will be carted into lined trucks and driven to approved landfills. Those facilities include the Simi Valley Landfill, the Azusa Land Reclamation site, Badlands Sanitary Landfill in Moreno Valley, Calabasas Landfill in Agoura, El Sobrante Landfill in Corona, Lamb Canyon Landfill in Beaumont, and Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Sylmar.
Other forms of waste, including metal and concrete, will be sent to staging areas for repackaging and sorting before going to a specialized landfill. Swenson said the corps will also scrape off the top six inches of contaminated soil from the burn area.
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