At a church parking lot near Los Angeles, two hazmat-suit-clad workers vacuumed and wiped most of the content
s of Elle Schneider’s house. Surrounded by stacked plastic bins of books and clothes, they opened up the drawers of a squat wooden dresser and swabbed the outside of a tall white cabinet.
The blaze that ravaged the LA suburb of Altadena in January stopped some 50 feet short of the freelance cinematographer’s home, but its plumes filtered through doo
rs and windows, leaving behind lead and other hazardous substances.
“It’s embarrassing and it’s dehumanizing to have to do this in front of the entire neighborhood,” said Schneider, who relied on the makeshift remediation ce
nter at the church to clean many of her belongings. “It’s bad enough to have to throw out so much of your stuff.”
Months after the smoke from California’s destructive fires cleared from LA skies, residents are still reckoning with a toxic stew of smoke pollutants whose ef
fects on human health are poorly understood. Without federal and local standards on how to deal with contaminants like arsenic and the carcinogen benzene, do
zens of researchers and private specialists are combing through yards and homes, work that goes beyond authorities’ post-fire testing.
“‘What are we facing? What are we exposed to? Is it safe?’ We hear these questions all the time,” said Yifang Zhu,
a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles’s public health school who’s been measuring pollution related to the fires since early this year. “This knowled
ge and new insights will be very helpful for the future.”
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t’s an unprecedented research effort that’s unfolding in real time and made more challenging by pre-existing e
nvironmental contamination — some of the contaminants might have come from sources other than the fire. But it’s a pressing task as wildfires increasingly sp
ill into communities, fueled by hotter and drier conditions induced by climate change.
Unlike fires in wilderness areas, which mostly consume vegetation, this breed of urban conflagrati
on sucks up buildings, cars and their contents, spitting hazards well beyond the burn area. Some experts say the risks for those exposed could be akin to those of 9/11
and other events that spewed toxic smoke and dust into the environment, though research into this is still in early stages.
The work is also addressing gaps in the government’s response to fires like this one.
California’s insurance commissioner created a task force earlier this year to come up with best practices for smoke claims, but the group doesn’t expect to issue recommendations until early next year.