LOS ANGELES — Scores of Los Angeles residents returned Tuesday to wildfire-ravaged Pacific Palisades after officials began letting people drive back into the scorched community, the first opportunity most have had to carefully scour the sites of their former homes.
Sifting through the ash and rubble, they marveled at what survived: everything from cherished keepsakes to mundane items of daily life that were now imbued with new meaning.
“It’s nice to find those little things that, you know, at one point didn’t mean so much,” said Jack Hassett, 22, who was digging through the ruins. “Plates are plates. But now they’re, you know, a memory to sort of look back on. … It’s such a scary thing to see all this, but it’s really sort of beautiful in a way.”
Firefighters were close to nearly having the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire fully to the east surrounded after the first significant storm of the season dosed a region that had been bone-dry for eight months. Both ignited Jan. 7 during powerful Santa Ana winds. The Palisades Fire, the largest of the blazes, destroyed more than 6,800 structures and killed at least 12 people.
A massive line of vehicles snaked along the Pacific Coast Highway in the morning to a Santa Monica parking lot where officials distributed permits to drive into the burn zone before nightfall — a curfew was still in effect to guard against looting. Before this week people were allowed to go to a only select few areas with a police escort.
The sun was out as hundreds drove into Pacific Palisades, a coastal hillside community, once dotted with mansions with spectacular views of the ocean and downtown Los Angeles. Block after block was reduced to gray and black debris.
Many wore protective gear, heeding health warnings about toxic ash that is a mix of incinerated cars, electronics, batteries, building materials, paints, furniture and other household items.
Standing at the remains of his 93-year-old mother’s home, where he grew up, Tim Bearer, surveyed the stunning scene. He said his stepbrother made it past the police barrier days after the fire and took video of the destroyed home with his phone, so he knew what to expect.
But it was still emotional to mine the site for family treasures. Amazingly his mother’s golf putter was bent but otherwise OK. Under more ash was a porcelain heart with the words, “I love you mom” — a gift from his sister; Bearer planned to return it to his mother, who was at a friend’s house in Santa Monica.
“My mom will just lose it when I show her,” he said.
Last week Los Angeles city and county officials expedited cleanup efforts and other measures aimed at mitigating the environmental impacts of fire-related pollutants, and the White House said President Donald Trump had directed federal officials to help local authorities.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has designated federally owned parkland east of Los Angeles as a temporary storage site for hazardous materials, though several local officials have voiced concern that Lario Park in the San Gabriel Valley could become a permanent toxic dumping ground.
“While I recognize the importance of addressing the aftermath of the fire and ensuring proper disposal of hazardous waste, this federal project has not included consultation or consideration of the local communities that will be directly affected,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said Monday in a statement.
Solis and others worry that dangerous materials could contaminate the air or seep into groundwater used by hundreds of thousands of people.
The EPA said it would conduct regular air monitoring, take frequent soil samples, use water trucks to control dust and transport waste out of the area daily. The materials will be transported on surface streets, not freeways, so trucks can travel at a slower and safer speed, the EPA’s Celese McCoy told the county Board of Supervisors at their regular meeting Tuesday. She said the site would likely be used less than six months, and additional areas are being considered.
“We are very experienced in doing this,” McCoy said. “We protect the environment. We protect public health.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom also announced an initiative with business leaders and elected officials to help support wildfire recovery and rebuilding in Los Angeles.
The Mark Walter Family Foundation and the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation committed to providing up to $100 million to the effort, the governor said at a news conference at Dodger Stadium. And NBA legend Magic Johnson said he will lead the effort to rebuild Altadena, which has been a haven for generations of Black families avoiding discriminatory housing practices elsewhere.
“We can’t lose hope,” Newsom said, while urging fire victims to seek support from the philanthropic effort, LA Rises. “It is possible that we can come back more climate resilient, come back stronger.”
In Pacific Palisades, Hassett’s sister put up a sign thanking their neighbors that echoed that sentiment: “We can rebuild this beautiful town together.”
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Associated Press journalists Jae Hong in Santa Monica, Tran Nguyen in Sacramento, Julie Watson in San Diego and Amy Taxin in Orange County contributed.
