Federal Agencies Begin Fire Debris Cleanup on Private Properties, Hailed As Major Milestone

Efforts to clear debris from residential properties in the Eaton and Palisades burn areas were continuing Wednesday, with the start of such operations hailed as a major milestone achieved in record time.

“Today we take another step toward rebuilding not just homes and businesses, but hope itself,” Federal Emergency Management Agency Regional Administrator Bob Fenton said at a news conference Tuesday at the Eaton Fire burn area in Altadena.

He said the debris-removal process “is about making properties safe, restoring the land and preparing for what comes next.”

FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers, in partnership with L.A. County and impacted municipalities, began debris-clearance work Tuesday on properties of survivors who submitted a form, known as a Right of Entry form, to remove fire-damaged structures such as concrete and metal, ash and hazardous trees.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said the beginning of Phase 2 debris-removal work was occurring with “unprecedented” speed, beginning just 35 days since the fires erupted. He said that is twice as fast as the process took following the 2018 Woolsey Fire in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

According to Newsom, of the thousands of people who have submitted Right of Entry forms allowing the Army Corps of Engineers to clear debris for free from private properties, only 315 people have opted out of the program. Those people will have to hire their own contractors to remove debris.

The governor said “the vast majority of people have decided to get this done for free.”

The debris-clearance work is occurring in advance of what is expected to be a powerful rainstorm that will begin Wednesday but kick into full gear on Thursday.

Crews with the city and county have been bracing for the storm, hoping to prevent flooding, mudslides and debris flows, and working to keep contaminated runoff from reaching the ocean.

But the rain won’t stop the debris work, and authorities continued to urge residents to complete the Right of Entry forms before the March 31 deadline.

Right of Entry forms are available at any FEMA Disaster Recovery Center and online at: recovery.lacounty.gov/debris-removal/.

Receiving the forms means the Corps will be able to begin clearing debris from residential properties that were destroyed in the blazes, as soon as they are cleared of hazardous materials by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Fenton said more than 7,300 of the forms had been filed as of Monday.

The EPA’s hazardous waste operations are considered Phase 1 of the debris-removal process. Once properties are cleared, residents can choose to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to clear other debris under Phase 2.

The USACE began Phase 2 work last week at five Pasadena Unified School District campuses that were destroyed in the Eaton Fire. According to the agency, debris has been cleared from the Pasadena Rosebud Academy, Franklin Elementary School and Noyes Elementary School.

Col. Eric Swenson, commander of the USACE’s Recovery Field Office, said the agency will take every precaution such as a water suppression technique to minimize air quality concerns during the work.

“Our goal is to help families take the first steps toward rebuilding by removing fire debris safely, urgently and with responsibility,” Swenson said.

Tara Fitzgerald, EPA Pacific Southwest Incident Commander for the agency’s emergency response to the L.A. wildfires, said that Phase 1 activities include the removal of household hazardous materials such as pesticides, damaged fuels, propane tanks, lithium ion batteries from small scooters to large energy storage systems for homes — any sort of materials that could cause harm to returning residents and workers, who begin Phase 2 of fire debris removal.

She noted the EPA has more than 1,300 personnel and 100 teams on the field conducting Phase 1 work. As of Monday, the EPA has cleared 3,000 parcels of hazardous materials.

The EPA has a goal of completing Phase 1 by Feb. 28 in order to allow Phase 2 activities on more private properties. In order to meet that deadline, Fitzgerald said the agency opened additional staging areas for household hazardous materials at the Altadena Golf Course and a Will Rogers State Beach parking lot.

Fitzgerald said the EPA does not anticipate opening more staging areas for Phase 1 activities, but the USACE may consider operating additional sites for their activities.

Fitzgerald said the EPA contracted with Clean Harbors to assist them in packaging and sorting hazardous materials, which is then shipped to permitted facilities. No landfills or recycling centers owned by municipalities are accepting such items — acceptable sites are owned by the state, county or out-of-state, she added.

Phase 2 materials will be sent to facilities approved by CalRecycle or the county, Swenson said. Concrete, wood and metal could be recycled and reintroduced into the supply or markets.

“We do use specialty contractors as needed for things like asbestos,” Swenson said.

Both agencies are implementing several mitigation measures to ensure hazardous materials do not leak or harm the staging area by using several layers of plastic or other materials, deep containers, specialized trucks, among other initiatives