Altadena, California – More than 9,000 homes and businesses were burned on the ground in the deadly Eaton fire, that crossed The Los Angeles de Altadena County Community last month. The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday allowed CBS News to accompany an EPA team that examined the ashes in search of toxic debris.
“We are looking for paintings without combustion,” News Harry Allen, a federal coordinator at the EPA site, told CBS. “Or any chemical for the home, pesticides. We look for batteries, especially in electric vehicles. And other types of hazards, such as unbroken ammunition, we can even eliminate.”
The EPA also monitors each property for asbestos and arsenic. Combing through the rubble is destined to be methodical.
The work is thorough, since EPA teams respond to Most expensive natural disaster in the history of the United States. And now, these teams face a growing public pressure to work faster than ever.
A Executive order Signed by President Trump at the end of January, he asked that the EPA “accelerate the massive elimination of contaminated and general debris” of forest fire areas of the Los Angeles area, including Palisades firewhich destroyed more than 6,800 structures in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of the EPA says that this means that cleaning must be completed before February 25.
Such a deadline for a large -scale disaster is not preceded. Following The mortal forest fire That crossed the historic city of Hawaii de Lahaina in August 2023, killing more than 100 people and destroying more than 2,000 buildings, the EPA took more than four months to eliminate hazardous materials of 1,400 homes. In southern California, the EPA now faces to go through almost 14,000 structures in just 30 days.
Allen says he feels the pressure to accelerate the process.
“It is much more coordinating, and we have to move much faster than in others, in other situations due to the various pressures,” said Allen.
The process It implies more than simply moving toxic debris, it is also about finding a place to go.
Last week, waste began to reach a park In the city of Azusa, about 15 miles from the Altadena fire zone, to be stored and processed. The Lario Preparation Area It is surrounded by four cities, and the leaders and residents of the city say that no one notified them first.
CBS News attended a meeting of the city full in Duarte, where community leaders demanded to know from the EPA coordinator in the Tara Fitzgerald scene if a disaster could unleash another.
“We are not allowing the materials to leak on earth,” Fitzgerald told frustrated residents.
When a resident shouted: “How do you know? She replied:” We know it. ”
“This has everything to do with the tactics of the mission and the strict timeline to which the EPA must comply, which is cleaned in 30 days,” said Jennifer Hogan, of the California Resources Recycling Department and recovery in the meeting.
An EPA official on the field described the accelerated cleaning deadline to CBS News as “bananas”, while another former EPA official said it may be almost impossible to meet this deadline.
Jonathan Vigliotti
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