An cleanup worker carries a barrel to hold lithium-ion batteries that will be removed from an electric vehicle in the Pacific Palisades.
Photographer: Roger Kisby/BloombergInside the LA Fire Cleanup's Rush to Remove Tons of Toxic Rubble
The Trump administration is trying to complete a hazardous cleanup effort in a third of the time required for the previous, much smaller urban wildfire in the US.
Removing toxic waste from the foothills and coastal canyons where more than 16,000 homes and businesses burned down in the Los Angeles wildfires was always going to be an unprecedented challenge in a densely-populated, traffic-choked metropolis. And then the Trump administration ordered the job to be completed in just 30 days.
Federal officials revealed the deadline on Jan. 29, days after President Donald Trump met with survivors of the Pacific Palisades fire. The US Environmental Protection Agency said that it’s been “tasked” with finishing the household hazardous materials cleanup within a month.