Los Angeles Wildfire Recovery: Second Year of Frustration
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – One year after two major wildfires tore through opposite sides of Los Angeles County, recovery for thousands of families remains far from complete.
The fires started just hours apart and burned for a month,killing 31 people and destroying more than 16,000 buildings across the county. In the Pacific Palisades and nearby Malibu, flames burned for 31 days, scorching 37 square miles and destroying more than 6,000 structures, most of them homes. in Altadena, the Eaton Fire alone destroyed more than 9,000 buildings.
Today, many survivors are still waiting for permits to rebuild, while others are grappling with contaminated properties, displacement and the slow return of normal life.
“I’ve seen silver linings all day long,” said nicole Gyarmathy, who has returned to the area near her former apartment to replant flowers one year after the fire.
“Anything that I can do to help bring back health and what used to be here; If it’s planting flowers and trees and cleaning up the trash,” Gyarmathy said.
MY HOUSE ALMOST BURNED DOWN IN THE PALISADES FIRE.ALLEGED ARSONIST IS NOT WHO I BLAME
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A protest sign calling for the resignation of Los angeles Mayor Karen Bass appears on a bulldozed lawn one year since the wildfires.(FOX News)
Ken Ehrlich, an environmental lawyer who lost his home in the fire, said he remembers arriving to find only remnants of what once stood.
“We pulled up right on Sunset… hysterically crying and screaming at the site of our still smoldering property with only the chimney standing,” Ehrlich said. ”I literally screamed that we need to get out of here right now.”
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Ehrlich’s property is now nearing construction after months of uncertainty. according to a December Los Angeles Times analysis, fewer than 14 percent of homes destroyed in the Palisades have received permits to rebuild. Even some homes that remain standing are unlivable due to smoke, ash and asbestos contamination.