About 1,500 truckloads of debris per day will be removed from the Eaton Fire area. John Cádiz Klemack reports for Today in LA on Monday Feb. 17, 2025.
About 1,500 truckloads per day will haul debris starting Monday from neighborhoods in the Altadena area destroyed by the January wildfire.
About 2.5 million tons of debris from 9,000 properties will be hauled by large dump trucks to Lario Park in the Duarte area, where protests have been held over use of the location. The trucks will travel three different routes to the sites.
The debris removal by the Army Corps of Engineers is part of Phase 2 of the cleanup process after the Environmental Protection Agency complete Phase 1, which involved hazardous waste debris. Residents with properties destroyed by the fire, the second-most destructive wildfire on record in California, could opt into or out of the free Corps program.
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The Phase 1 work by the EPA was initially expected to take up to three months. The first Right of Entry forms completed by wildfire victims have been delivered to the Army Corps of Engineers, marking a milestone in the wildfire recovery process.
The forms allow the Corps to begin clearing debris from residential properties destroyed in the fires as soon as those properties are cleared of hazardous materials.
Lario Park is federal land owned by the Corps and leased to the county of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation. The site is a staging area for the collection of household hazardous waste collected during Phase 1 of the wildfire cleanup.
"As operations ramp up, residents should expect increased truck traffic in affected neighborhoods and along debris removal routes to local landfills," the Army Corps of Engineers said in a statement. "Officials encourage the public to plan accordingly and appreciate their patience as crews work to remove debris and mitigate health and safety risks for all residents of LA County.
"USACE anticipates that most eligible properties enrolled in the federal debris removal program will be cleared within a year, with a majority expected to be completed well before that deadline."
The wildfire debris removal process is considered an unprecedented lithium-ion battery cleanup. The batteries are found in EVs, laptops, cellphones and other electronics. When damaged and overheated, lithium-ion batteries can ignite and even explode. The batteries are one major reason there are stringent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements that are prioritized in the post-wildfire cleanup process.
At least 17 people were killed in the 14,000-acre Eaton Fire, which destroyed 9,418 structures and damaged 1,073 more. At least 12 people were killed in the Palisades Fire, which burned 23,448 acres, destroyed 6,837 structures and damaged 1,017 others.
The cause of both fires, which began while the region was under a red flag warning for critical fire danger due to a historic wind event that saw gusts of 80 to 100 mph, remains under investigation.
The UCLA Anderson Forecast released a report Tuesday estimated that the two fires caused property damage and capital losses ranging between $95 billion and $164 billion, with insured losses at $75 billion.
