A small number of workers, heavy equette operators, hazardous material technicians and truck drivers have cleared more than a third of the lot of homes left in abandoned in burnt after the January fire.
Officers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who oversee the initiative said that crews of civil contractors are working in record clips to recover from wildfires, clearing nearly 120 lots a day and operating close to the capacity that residents close to the roads and fire zones would be acceptable.
The scope of unfinished works became a more clear focus last week, allowing residents of Altadena, Pacific Palisade and Malibu to opt in or out of cleanup on April 15th.
The only car passes the Pacific Coast Highway, passing the Pacific Pallisard Bowl Mobile Estate, where fires are intensified.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Around 10,373 property owners completed the “right to entry” form, allowing Army and government contractors to work on their property, while 1,698 others opted out of the program.
The Army Corps of Engineers reported that 4,153 facilities across the Eton and Palisade’s combustion zone had been cleared by Thursday, but the total declared “complete” is because many lots must be terminated to prevent erosion as they still include removal of dangerous trees, installation of pools, installation of pools and application of “Hydromurch” seal runts.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass held a press conference on Thursday, recording 100 days after the fire and promoting the speed of recovery. “The Army Corps of Engineers are Los Angeles heroes and Palisade heroes,” said Bass, who is standing with the Army commander and Westside councillor Traci Park. “It’s amazing to be here every day. …Every time I come, I see more and more properties cleared.”
Army officers commanding the cleanup say it is the biggest thing their agency has ever done in the wildfire zone. With over a million tonnes of concrete, steel, soil and plants already removed from the burned area, two colonels reached to explain the scope of the work.
Colonel Brian Sauser of the Army Corps of Engineers oversees the debris removal program in the Pallisard Fire Burn Zone.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The weight of the removed pieces equals the weight of 100 Eiffel Towers, said Colonel Sonny Abichal, a West Point alumnus who oversees the cleaning of the Atadena fire. The weight taken from the Palisade, alone, equals a row of Ford F-150 pickups, lined up from end-to-end and stretches from Los Angeles past Salt Lake City, said Colonel Brian Sauser, another West Point alumnus who oversaw the Palisade Fire Cleanup.
“This is very similar to a war combat approach,” Sawser said, referring to the military’s strategy of uniting diverse personnel, organizations and processes and unifying them for a common purpose. He later pledged: “An update is coming, it’s coming, and we’ll bring it to you as soon as possible.”
Abichal said missions require not only brute force, but also a soft touch. It’s when an older woman from Altadena recently asked her cleanup crew for personal treasure buried in the tiled bleed of the house. The workers quickly retrieved the small safe and the gold coins inside, delivering the prize money to the homeowner who made the moments filmed on Facebook video shine.
“At the end of the day, it’s about the human touch,” Abhichal said. “It’s about compassion for individuals who have lost their home.”
Cleanup has risen considerably in recent weeks.
When Avichal arrived from his base in Virginia in February, there were only 20 crew members cleaning up the lot in Altadena. (Each crew consists of at least Army quality assurance personnel, principal contractors, Burlingame-based ECC task force leaders, heavy equipment operators, crew leaders, and several workers.
It will take less than two days for workers to finish the liquidation of the property. This is slightly less than required in Pallisard, where many tend to grow, and in Malibu, the unstable perches of over 300 burning homes along the beach.
Currently, the fire zone is engraved with yellow and orange safety vest trucks, earthmovers and workers lines. The air resonates with a destructive fuss. A giant excavator hits a steel beam, a warning signal as the truck returns to position, and green organic material coming out of the hose to the completed site.
The image may appear to be confusing, but it is the result of a few hours of planning and preparation.
Homeowners usually get a call 2-3 days before crew members arrive. Staff at Chief Contractor ECC are looking for details on the important property: Are there any septic tank lids or propane tanks that need to be evacuated? Are there any pet graves that I have to leave uninterrupted? Should workers be looking for squatters?
The first testing crew, commissioned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, screens each property for paint and other toxic substances. Analysts also conduct asbestos surveys. This is a job that has expanded as carcinogens appear in more places than expected.
Workers discovered asbestos in more than 60% of Altadena homes and more than 40% in the extended Palisade fire zone. White Hazmato suits and respiratory cleanup crews usually needed up to three days to scrape off the material and remove it in an airtight container.
“At one point, the 95 crew members had done nothing but asbestos reduction,” Abhichal said.
On the West Side, debris removal is complicated by narrowed roads inside and outside the burn zone. Traffic flow along the Pacific Coast Highway has been reduced to one lane in each direction, with Temescal Canyon Road still closed to create what Army leaders call TDR, a temporary debris reduction site.
Heavy excavators pound huge concrete blocks into more manageable chunks. Grinders can grind the material into 1-3 inch rock and recycle it. Steel and other metals are also compressed in the recycling zone before the truck is taken away.
By performing reduction work near the disaster site, debris that first filled three or four dump trucks can be integrated into one large semi-tractor trailer load. This means that the total traffic volume for trucks leaving the burn area is significantly reduced.
The Army Corps of Engineers oversees a debris removal program in the Palisade Fire Zone in the Pacific Ocean.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Anthony Margreas, a real estate agent who works to rebuild the efforts at Pallisard, called the debris recycling effort a “clear victory for the community” in terms of reducing outbound truck traffic and appearing to be “efficient and environmentally responsible.”
State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in January that homeowners typically spent more than $100,000 when they paid private contractors to remove the wreckage after a recent wildfire.
Those who opt in to government programs do not have direct out-of-pocket costs, but the Army Corps of Engineers will ask an insurance company that covers debris removal to reimburse the government to the limits of that particular coverage.
Pressure for progress is present throughout the fire community as homeowners are pleasing for access to allow rebuilding to begin. However, there is a particularly high willingness to complete the work along the burning Malibu PCH of 327 homes.
There are multiple causes for extra anxiety. The charred home remains flushed away, spilling contaminants into Santa Monica Bay. Caltrans crews need access to prevent the ground beneath the PCH from eroding. Also, the sooner you work, the faster you will be able to access along the highway. This is the lifeline of a company that relies on residents and customers coming from Santa Monica and the points beyond.
Sauser said last week that Army-led crews could “triple the effort” along the coast, compared to three or four previously operated crews.
“That highway is all the lynchpin we do,” Sawser said.
The cleanup crew has been widely praised, but the job was not perfect. The homeowner complained at a recent hearing in Malibu that the excavator began plowing concrete slabs under the ADU. She caught the mistake before the destruction was complete, and the contractor later told her over the phone that the company would pay to repair the damages.
And some health officials and residents are questioning whether lot clearances are well underway. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has decided not to follow past practices of testing soil after contaminant disasters. These tests were usually used to determine if the cleanup crew exceeded the first 6 inches of topsoil.
After Twin La fires, FEMA has raised criticism that the cleanup is not really perfect and announced that it will not conduct soil testing on cleaned lots. These appointments acquired traction for soil testing by Los Angeles County within and around burn areas discovered for lead levels earlier this month.
The potential negative impact of this work is creating pushbacks in neighboring Southern California communities, given that more than 2,000 Earth, concrete, metal and other debris are shipped daily to 16 landfills and recycling centers.
The Simi Valley Fandfill & Recycling Center has earned the largest share of the fire, receiving an average of 1,228 trucks last week and a total of 636,000 tonnes of debris since the cleanup began. The second largest fire remnants repository, the Sunshine Canyon Reclamation in Sylmer, received 126,000 tons.
From Malibu to Calabasa, Altadena and Irwindale, residents around the combustion zone and communities where debris are deposited have expressed fear that toxic substances could be released into the air and soil.
Charlotte Conti and her daughter Zia protest the deposits of fire debris at a Calabasas landfill in February.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The contractor responded that he was paying considerable attention to keeping pollutants out of the air, including frequent watering of home lots and waste integrated sites. In mid-April, protests and lawsuits by the city of Calabasas did not successfully redirect the shard.
On a recent weekday afternoon, wreckage trucks lined up hundreds of yards outside the measuring station at the Simi Valley Landfill & Recycling Centre. Once inside, the truck raised the lumber up the long, curved road towards the hills. After that, another wait time came to throw away my luggage. The immeasurable living room set, teddy bears, running shoes and other debris spills into your final resting place.
A huge cloud of seagulls became violently agitated and swooped around the burnt waste.
“Everything we owned and gathered for over 35 years was carried like three trucks,” said Eitan, a Palisade man who refused to show his last name. “From ashes to ashes, it’s almost a biblical conclusion. It’s for humans, but in this case it’s for all those objects as well.”
Source link
