Nearly six months after a wildfire devastated the Pacific Palisades, the final evacuation orders have been fully lifted, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
A portion of the coastal Los Angeles neighborhood had remained under an evacuation order because of dangerous downed wires, potentially explosive lithium-ion batteries and toxic wildfire debris, according to Lyndsey Lantz, a spokesperson for the Fire Department.
The Army Corps of Engineers, the lead agency overseeing wildfire cleanup, has overseen federal contractors in clearing wreckage away from more than 3,200 properties, alleviating some of those worries.
“Our concern has decreased since much of the debris has been removed,” Lantz said.
Only residents and contractors had previously been able to return to the portion of Pacific Palisades that remained under the evacuation order. Authorities had established vehicle checkpoints, in part, to keep the public away from these lingering hazards.
As the final evacuation orders fully lift, however, the general public will be allowed to access the area. Los Angeles police are expected to maintain a presence in the neighborhood to ward off potential thieves and deter property crime.
Although people will be allowed back into fire-affected communities, public safety and health authorities are asking them to exercise caution, such as wearing an N-95 mask to prevent exposure to toxic dust.
Elected officials and environmental researchers have raised serious concerns about the possibility of lingering soil contamination because federal disaster agencies have decided not to pay for soil testing to confirm that heavy contamination isn’t left behind.
Soil sampling projects by Los Angeles Times journalists and, separately, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health found lead and arsenic contamination above California’s standards for residential properties at properties already cleaned by federal contractors.
