By Ann Saphir
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Wearing a respirator, goggles, gloves and white safety boots, Shaun Kearney stared at his home in Sunset Mesa, a coastal community outside Pacific Palisades. He survived the wildfires that destroyed Los Angeles, but the forecast for the weekend suggests another problem: rain.
Kearney has to plug a hole in the roof to stop the rainfall, which he fears will be laced with toxins.
Hazardous chemicals spewing from burning homes and cars are top of mind for Kearney as he contemplates the recovery and rebuilding he believes will take years.
Most of the neighboring houses were built before 1979, when asbestos was freely used in construction and these houses were reduced to ashes.
“Even though our house is still standing, obviously we can’t live here,” said the fashion business executive, CEO of Harry Styles’ Pleasing brand. “It’s going to get worse when they start removing the debris — that’s my biggest concern.”
The fires, which broke out on January 7 and are still not fully contained, killed 28 people and damaged or destroyed almost 16,000 buildings. The rain will bring cleaner air and improve firefighting conditions, but some authorities have expressed concern that the overall rain will make the situation worse.
The fire “passed through homes, vehicles, electronics, plastics, chemicals, furniture and countless everyday materials, creating a dangerous mix of toxins,” L.A. Councilwoman Traci Parks warned residents this week as she announced efforts to contain the runoff. “When it rains, they flow into our gutters, storm drains … eventually onto our beaches.”
Workers on Friday installed concrete barriers used to control freeway traffic along the Pacific Coast Expressway and in the Palisades neighborhoods above the coast to prevent landslides, like those that killed 21 people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage after a fire seven years ago in Santa Barbara County.
Other workers place canvas covers and straw barriers around storm drains to filter pollutants and slow the flow of water.
Trucks were hauling away burned cars, many of them toxic. The job is far from over: burned-out car wrecks line the roads and fill driveways, and many drains appear to be unprotected.
Much of the work that can be seen in the Palisades has focused on sealing broken gas and water pipes, repairing power lines and patching roads. President Donald Trump visited the area on Thursday.
Light rain is forecast for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Still, the U.S. Geological Survey says short, intense rain can trigger debris flows, and the map shows so much of the Palisade area and Eaton (NYSE: ) fires would have a high probability of danger with a 15-minute burst of rain falling between a quarter and a half inch (6-13 mm).
While toxins from burned homes are at least partially contained in their foundations, vehicles and mobile homes are typically parked on impervious surfaces like asphalt, so when rainwater picks up metals from burned car batteries or tires, it can go straight into storm drains.
“There’s nothing that contains that ash,” says Jackson Webster, a professor of civil engineering at California State University Chico, who studied the effects of the 2018 campfire in Northern California.
While the immediate threat to human health from dirty stormwater may be limited, he said, the impact on ecosystems, including the ocean, has not been well studied. Runoff could also sink into the ground, contaminating gardens and once well-tended grounds.
SOME POSITIVE
In recent days, police have escorted hundreds of residents like Kearney back to previously evacuated areas where, even in the worst-damaged blocks, there are still frequent whiffs of acrid ash. The rain will help, experts say.
“There’s no downside, from an air perspective … light rain like this is a good thing,” said UCLA Institute for Environment and Sustainability Professor Suzanne Paulson, who studies air pollutants and says falling water picks up particles in the air and deposits them in the soil. where they cannot be inhaled.
But for many residents, the risks of toxins are incalculable.
“That’s why we’re not staying here. It’s the unknown,” said Jose Montelongo, 46, a general contractor whose rental home in Pacific Palisades was not destroyed by the fire. They have a small son, he added. “It’s not worth finding out.”
Daniel and Miriam Dvorsky, with their son Jake, searched through the rubble of their burned home a few blocks from Kearney’s home in Sunset Mesa on Friday, looking for heirlooms passed down by their grandparents. There was little to save.
“We would like nothing more than a rebuild,” said Daniel, who along with his wife wore white coveralls and N95 masks provided by the Red Cross. He added, however, that he believes that political, economic and environmental constraints could make reconstruction difficult.
Several firemen in a truck passed by. “Anything I can help you with,” asked one.
Daniel, lying on a blue lawn chair — one of his only possessions that remained unscathed — replied, “Scotch, maybe.”
