Altadena, California — ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) — “Danger: Main Work Area” reads a sign on the front door of an Altadena home. “It may harm fertility or the unborn child. It causes damage to the central nervous system.”
Block after block there are reminders that the pollutants still linger.
House cleaners, hazardous waste workers and homeowners alike come and go wearing masks, respirators, gloves and hazmat suits as they sweep, vacuum and power wash unburned homes to ash.
It has been a year of heartbreak and anxiety more than any other Devastating forest fires In the history of the Los Angeles area, it has burned neighborhoods and displaced tens of thousands of people. Two wind-ignited fires on January 7, 2025 killed at least 31 people and destroyed nearly 17,000 structures, including homes, schools, and universities. Companies And places of worship. Reconstruction It will take years.
The disaster brought another wave of shock to people who fear what still lurks inside their homes.
Indoor air quality after wildfires remains understudied, and scientists still don’t know the long-term health effects of exposure to large urban fires like last year’s fires in Los Angeles. But some of the chemicals released are known to be linked to heart disease and lung problems Exposure to minerals such as magnetite It has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
ash The area has a toxic soup of burned-out cars, electronics, paint, furniture, and all manner of other personal property. They may contain pesticides, asbestos, plastic, lead or other heavy metals.
Many of the homes that are still standing are now live with Risks The fires left her.
Nina and Billy Malone considered their home of 20 years a sanctuary before smoke, ash and soot seeped inside, leaving behind harmful levels of lead even after professional cleaning. Recent tests found the toxin was still present on the wood floors in the living room and bedroom.
They were forced to return home in August anyway, after insurance cut off their rental assistance.
Since then, Nina has woken up almost daily with a sore throat and headache. Billy had to get an inhaler due to worsening wheezing and congestion. Their bedroom smelled “like an ashtray that’s been there for a long time,” Nina said. She’s more concerned about exposure to unregulated contaminants that insurance companies aren’t required to test for.
“I don’t feel comfortable in this place,” said Nina, whose neighbors’ homes across the street were burned.
They are not alone.
According to a report released in November by Eaton Fire Residents United, a volunteer group formed by residents, six out of 10 homes damaged by smoke from the Eaton Fire still contained dangerous levels of cancer-causing asbestos, brain-damaging lead, or both. This is based on self-provided data from 50 homeowners who have cleaned their homes, with 78% of them hiring professional cleaners.
Of the 50 homes, 63% had lead levels above EPA standards, according to the report. Average lead levels were about 60 times higher than the EPA rule.
Even after fires were extinguished, volatile organic compounds from smoke, some of which are known to cause cancer, lingered inside people’s homes, according to a recent study. Recent study. To mitigate these risks, residents returning home should ventilate and filter indoor air by opening windows or running high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) purifiers using charcoal filters.
Zoe Gonzalez Izquierdo said she couldn’t convince her insurance company to pay for a proper cleanup of her family’s home in Altadena, which tested positive for dangerous levels of lead and other toxic compounds.
“They can’t send an uncertified company to wipe things down so we can then go back to a home that’s still contaminated,” said Gonzalez, who has children ages 2 and 4.
Experts believe the lead, which can remain in dust on floors and window sills, comes from burned lead paint. The University of Southern California reported that more than 70% of the homes inside the Eaton Fire were built before 1979, when lead paint was common.
“For pregnant individuals and young children, it is especially important that we do everything we can to eliminate lead exposure,” said pediatrician Dr. Lisa Patel, executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and a member of the climate advocacy group Science Moms.
She added that the same applies to asbestos because there is no safe level of exposure to it.
People who lived in Pacific BarriersWhich also burned down, faces similar challenges.
Residents are at the mercy of their insurance companies, which decide what they cover and for how much. It is an uphill and ongoing battle for many. The state’s insurer of last resort, known as the California Plan for Fair Access to Insurance Requirements, has been under scrutiny for years over its handling of… Fire damage claims.
Homeowners want state agencies to impose a requirement that insurance companies restore properties to pre-fire condition.
Julie Lawson won’t take any risks. Her family paid about $7,000 out of pocket to have the soil tested at their Altadena home, even though their insurance company had already agreed to pay for replacing the grass in their front yard. They plan to test for contaminants again once they finish remediating the interior, the process of making a home free of contaminants after a fire. If insurance doesn’t cover it, they’ll pay for it themselves.
Even if their home becomes livable again, they still face other losses – including property rights and the community they once lived in.
“We have to live in the scar,” she said. “We’re all still really struggling.”
They will live in the construction zone for years. “This is not over for us.”
Annie Barbour with the nonprofit United Policyholders helps people overcome challenges, which include insurance companies’ resistance to paying for contamination tests and industrial hygienists disagreeing about what to test.
She sees the effects mental health has on people — and as a survivor of 2017 Tubbs Fire In Northern California, they get it.
Many were initially happy to see their homes still standing.
“But they’ve been in a special kind of hell ever since,” Barbour said.
Now residents like the Malones are checking their belongings, one by one, fearing they may have absorbed toxins.
Boxes, bags, and boxes stuffed with clothes, china, and everything in between fill the couple’s car, basement, garage, and house.
They painstakingly go through their items, assessing what they think can be adequately cleaned. In the process, Nina cleans cabinets, drawers and floors and still finds soot and ash. She wears gloves and a respirator, or sometimes just an N-95 mask.
Their insurance won’t pay to have their home retested, so they’re considering paying the $10,000 themselves, Bailey said. If the results showed there was still contamination, their insurance company told them they would only pay to clean up toxins that were federally regulated, such as lead and asbestos.
“I don’t know how you can fight it,” said Nina, who is considering therapy to cope with her anxiety. “How do you find that argument to force an insurance company to pay for something to make yourself safe?”
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AP writer Alex Vega contributed to this report.
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