"The devastation left in the wake of January's Eaton and Palisades fires was unimaginable. The firestorms engulfed 59 square miles of Southern California - more than twice the size of Manhattan - transforming entire city blocks in Altadena and Pacific Palisades into corridors of ashes, twisted metal and skeletal trees. Federal disaster officials rapidly deployed thousands of workers to gather up the wreckage across the burn scars. Armed with shovels and heavy construction equipment, crews quickly collected fire debris from rugged cliffsides, dusky shorelines"
"In a matter of months, they transformed the heaps of charred rubble into mostly vacant matchbox lots, ready for rebuilding. Recently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported that it had finished clearing roughly 2.6 million tons of wreckage from nearly 9,700 properties, an astonishing eight-month federal cleanup that has been extolled as the largest and fastest in modern American history."
Massive January Eaton and Palisades fires consumed 59 square miles, reducing Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighborhoods to ash, twisted metal and skeletal trees. Federal disaster crews and private contractors removed roughly 2.6 million tons of wreckage from nearly 9,700 properties and cleared debris from an additional 2,100 parcels, converting charred rubble into mostly vacant lots ready for rebuilding. The U.S. Army Corps led an eight-month cleanup lauded for speed and scale, but officials declined comprehensive soil testing. Subsequent soil sampling by university researchers, local public health authorities and journalists detected excessive toxic metals at properties already cleared.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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