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If you look hard enough, there are signs of change.
The hillside along the Pacific Ocean is burning beyond recognition, indicating tentative signs of regeneration. Occasionally, flowers bloom next to the lost house. From the air, the Altadena grid shows acre of neatly stepped empty lots where burnt-out houses and businesses stood. The fresh wooden frames of Pacific Palisade’s new home have become a hopeful sign for some.
But the six-month anniversary of the worst fire in Los Angeles County history still finds it difficult to measure. The sense of loss – 30 deaths, thousands of homes gone, long-term plans are off track, fighting insurance companies, mental anguish – is still too raw. And they still feel that evidence of progress is fleeting, especially for thousands of victims.
The wooden frame of the house under construction will be seen in Palisade, Pacific Ocean on July 8th, 2025.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Modern Los Angeles has never experienced any losses on this scale, so there is no easy roadmap. There are individual challenges. Suffering from the death of a loved one, decide whether to rebuild, and assess financial losses. Then there’s the collective thing: Does my neighborhood feel like my neighborhood again? Can I still have the time to live here? Do I still want to live here?
There have been some measurable changes since January for all uncertainty. Thousands of lots have been cleared. A large number of lawsuits have been filed. Several investigations are underway, with dozens of new building permits being issued.
Here’s a review of where we are:
cleaning
Federal, state and local officials continued to promote the massive cleanup of Eaton and Palisade fire fragments as the fastest wildfire recovery in modern history.
At a press conference held in Pasadena this week, civil servants said that removing wildfire fragments is “a few months away from schedule,” and that Altadena and the Pacific Palisades are moving from debris removal to the reconstruction phase.
Federal contractors hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have removed ash, tile bleeds and contaminated soil from more than 9,000 plots, with fewer than 1,000 facilities waiting to be removed.
The federal cleanup pace – 2,000 real estate per month – is twice as fast as the state-controlled 2018 camp fires, destroying paradise and remains the state’s most destructive wildfire.
The crew removed more than 2.5 million tonnes of ash, debris, metal, concrete and contaminated soil. According to Gavin Newsom’s office, the total removed from the fire zones of Eton and Palisades corresponds to 92 Freedom Statues, twice the amount removed from ground zero since 9/11.
1. Environmental engineering company OFRS will perform the restoration after the Army cleans up the site at Las Casas Avenue, Pacific Parliad, on June 25th, 2025. 2.
When workers gathered the wreckage, highly toxic ash, contaminated soil and other wildfire debris were taken to four local landfills. Azusa Land Revival in Azusa, Calabasas Landfill in Agoura Hills, Simi Valley Reclamation and Simi Canyon Landfill in Simi Valley.
Still, environmental researchers and residents are concerned about the quality of the cleaning. In particular, FEMA refused to pay for the test to ensure that the ash-covered portion of the facility remains after the cleanup crew removed the debris and soil layers.
Soil testing by Los Angeles Times journalists, Los Angeles County, and privately funded researchers has found lead levels above state standards for housing property that federal contractors have passed. The owners of around 1,900 plots have opted out of federal cleaning and instead have clean properties for private contractors.
Cleanup efforts focus primarily on detached homes, schools and parks. However, debris removal could potentially shift to more complex multifamily buildings and commercial real estate.
Newsom said this week that 9,195 of the 9,873 properties registered under the federal government’s debris removal program have been cleared. The figures do not include commercial buildings or the approximately 2,000 property owners who hired their own private contractors to remove debris.
The properties that have been fired hundreds have not chosen federal cleaning or private contractors. Last month, Los Angeles city officials declared these properties a public nuisance as they failed to take action to clean up the debris.
City and County Response
In Los Angeles, more than 3,450 people homes and nearly 80% of the city’s destroyed in the Pallisard fire have been cleaned up.
But most still navigate the process of rebuilding.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and LA County leaders have pledged to streamline the permits for property owners who want to rebuild, a process that many homeless residents criticised for being too late.
Mayor Karen Bass will speak to the media at a press conference held at Los Angeles City Hall on June 12, 2025.
(Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times)
The city and county have opened a one-stop permit center and abandoned certain zoning reviews for those who want to build a home about the same size as their previous residence.
Over 650 planned check applications have been submitted to the LA Department of Construction and Safety. Of these, more than 220 have been approved, and more than 165 have been issued, according to the city. A plan check is a review of the building plans and documents regarding building code compliance, a requirement for most construction projects.
In the non-consolidated region of the county, as of Tuesday, more than 1,000 applications had been filed and 90 building permits had been issued, according to the county dashboard. According to the site, it takes an average of 51 business days for residents to obtain a permit.
Officials also announced plans to use artificial intelligence to help city and county building officials review applications and speed up the process.
FEMA
As the fire escalated in January, the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent more than 500 workers to Los Angeles County to help residents during evacuation, including food, shelters and baby prescriptions, and assisted medical expenses. According to an agency spokesperson, more than 4,100 people were housed in hotel rooms sponsored by FEMA in the early days of the agency’s response.
In the next few months, the agency said it distributed grants for cleaning and disinfecting damaged homes, providing temporary housing, and assisting people in replacing important items lost in the fire.
As of this week, more than $3 billion in federal funds have been approved for individuals, families and businesses affected by the fire, according to FEMA. Over 11,500 small business loans and nearly 35,000 FEMA grants have been approved. According to FEMA, almost 3,600 families have been hit by fire after temporary rental subsidies.
The agency is still in Los Angeles. FEMA said it is still processing requests under 200 assistance.
“As LA wildfire survivors continue to recover, we recommend that you stay in touch with FEMA and update your application with changes in situations,” a FEMA spokesman told the Times in an email this week. “If you are not meeting your additional needs through insurance or other means, you may be entitled to additional assistance.”
Cause of the fire
Six months after the fire, there is no definitive cause from the authorities of either flame. However, there are some theories.
According to a source with knowledge of the Palisades Fire Probe, there are two main hypotheses: the 8-acre flame is called the Lachman Fire, and firefighters thought it came out in the New Year in the same area.
I believe that the Palisade fire is probably a rekind of the Lachman fire. However, sources emphasized that the investigation is still underway.
The Luckman fire was reported at about 12:17am on New Year’s Day on a hillside above the Pacific Pillar by residents, about two blocks from the popular Skull Rock Trail. It was believed that the fire was caused by fireworks. Shortly after 3:30am, firefighters reported that the flames had stopped moving forward.
About an hour later, LAFD reported that the firefighters “completed a hose line around the fire, and was fully included.”
On January 7th, 2025, the house was completely engulfed by the Palisade fire along Haverford Avenue in Pacific Palisades.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Some experts suspect that the fire may not be fully released, and suspect that on January 7th, a heavy wind ignited the fire to clean up the Palisades in the Pacific Ocean.
Federal agents have not said when to determine the official cause.
“This remains a continuous investigation. We will not discuss or respond to speculation on the results of the preliminary investigation until the work is completed and officially reviewed,” a spokesman for alcohol, cigarettes, firearms and explosives told the Times this week.
The investigation into the cause of the Eton fire began with the inception focusing on power lines owned by Edison in Southern California. In particular, the company focuses on idles, unconnected power lines that could be regenerated on the day of the fire.
Edison officials have admitted that the equipment may have caused the Eton fire, and the company has admitted that it faces numerous lawsuits regarding the flames.
Edison International’s chief executive Pedro Pizzarro told the Times in April that evidence, including videos and data from the line, suggested that the idle device could have been replicated through a phenomenon called induction, causing Inferno.
Investigators with the Los Angeles County Fire Department and California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention have yet to determine the official cause of the fire.
Legal issues
The fire caused a huge wave of lawsuits. The homeowner filed lawsuits against the insurance company, the Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles and Edison in Southern California.
Los Angeles County, Pasadena and Sierra Madre all filed a lawsuit against Edison in March over alleged roles in Etonfire. The county lawsuit alleges the fire began when utility equipment contacted the vegetation or caused sparks that lit the brush.
Pasadena’s complaint points out that Edison submitted a report to the California Public Utilities Commission that he told the California Public Utilities Commission that a failure was detected in the power transmission circuit around the same time the fire broke out.
Residents also filed dozens of lawsuits against the utility.
Siller Skycrane will remove the multi-part Edison Tower 208 in Southern California from the hillside of Altadena on May 7, 2025. The Idol Transmission Tower suspected of causing the Eton fire will be inspected in the lab.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Palisades residents are suing the LADWP, claiming that one of the utility’s electric towers began its second ignition when it was knocked down at 10:30pm on January 7th, about 12 hours after the Palisades fire began. The lawsuit also cites reports from the era when utility Santay Nez Reservoir in Palisade was found empty among the Inferno.
LADWP dismissed the idea that it could be liable for the flames.
“Our crew and systems were prepared for situations that could put a strain on the system, but they were not designed to combat large, wind-driven wildfires of the speed and scale presented by the historically destructive Palisade fire,” the utility said in a statement.
The insurance company was also on the receivers of several lawsuits filed by frustrated residents. In May, a Pacific Palisade couple filed a lawsuit alleging California Fairplan Assn. Payment was delayed to repair a home that had been damaged by a fire.
The USAA State Farm and two insurance companies affiliated with AAA are being sued by policyholders who claim they don’t have insurance and don’t have enough money to rebuild their homes.
State Farm said Tuesday that the company has processed more than 13,000 claims since the fire and paid more than $4.2 billion in customers. The company said it expects to pay at least $2 billion.
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