LA County Wraps Up Weekly Wildfire Recovery Press Conferences

Los Angeles County officials announced Wednesday they will discontinue their weekly wildfire recovery press conferences, marking a transition from emergency response to long-term rebuilding efforts following January’s devastating fires.

“This will be our final weekly press conference, but there will continue to be information provided to our wildfire survivors,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger during the March 12 briefing.

The County will instead host weekly community meetings every Monday at 4 p.m. to address residents’ concerns and questions. Officials will also continue updating the recovery.lacounty.gov website with the latest information.

The announcement came as the County reached major milestones in its recovery process, including $86 million in total individual assistance from FEMA and $1.5 billion in SBA loans approved for fire victims.

“These aren’t just numbers. They represent real lives that have been impacted and real progress that is being made,” Barger said.

Officials reported that more than 4,000 residents have visited disaster recovery centers while over 25,000 survivors have connected with the County for information and support. The first phase of debris removal has cleared more than 300 tons of household hazardous waste, with phase two expected to remove an estimated 4.5 million tons of additional debris.

The County has received over 9,000 right-of-entry forms from the more than 13,500 eligible properties, with nearly 4,000 already validated and submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers for the second phase of debris removal.

Mark Pestrella, director of LA County Public Works, emphasized that property owners must decide by March 31 whether to use government services for debris removal or handle it privately.

“What people are doing is trying to decide who can do this faster, who can do this quicker, because I know that residents want to have this done as quickly as possible,” Pestrella said.

Colonel Eric Swenson from the Army Corps of Engineers reported active work on 629 parcels in various stages of debris removal, with 242 parcels completely cleared to date. The Corps expects to reach 5,000 right-of-entry forms by Thursday.

The Army Corps has also refined its tree assessment process, using blue dots to mark hazardous trees scheduled for removal, yellow dots with yellow ribbons for trees that property owners requested to keep, and brown dots for trees reassessed as non-hazardous.

Regarding rebuilding efforts, Pestrella said no full rebuild permits have been issued yet for Altadena, but 80-100 applications are in process. The County aims for a two-week turnaround on initial reviews and plans to issue permits within 30 days of complete application submission.

“This is the fastest debris removal effort that has been stood up post-fire in the history of Los Angeles County at a scale that has never been seen before,” Barger noted, while emphasizing that efforts should continue scaling up to expedite rebuilding.

County officials also issued warnings about an incoming storm system expected to bring heavy rainfall Wednesday through Thursday, particularly dangerous for fire-impacted communities at risk of mudflows and landslides.

Pestrella reported that the storm could bring 1-2 inches of rain to coastal and valley areas and 2-4 inches in foothills and mountains, with rainfall intensities up to three-quarters of an inch per hour. Snow is expected at 3,000 feet with accumulations up to 12 inches in higher elevations.

One-stop permitting centers are available for residents to begin the rebuilding application process even before debris removal is complete.

Colonel Swenson also urged drivers to slow down when passing work zones to ensure the safety of recovery crews.