The Brief

The L.A. County Department of Public Health has found high levels of lead in the soil of properties that burned during January’s fires and have now been cleared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The county initiated the testing after the Army Corps said it would not do the testing itself, breaking with a longstanding practice of the federal government doing that work. Army Corps officials said removing up to 6 inches of topsoil would be enough to eliminate hazardous chemicals.

But ongoing testing is finding that is not necessarily the case.

The county hired environmental consulting firm Roux Associates Inc. to sample soil at 30 properties — 15 in the Eaton Fire burn zone and 15 in the Palisades — that had been cleared by the Army Corps.

The results were most worrisome in Altadena, where about 27% of the samples had lead levels above California’s residential safety standard. (No amount of lead exposure is considered safe, but state health standards aim to reduce risk of exposure.)

In the Palisades burn scar, fewer than 3% of cleared properties had lead levels above California’s safety standard.

Lead levels were lower on cleared properties as opposed to properties that had not yet been cleared by the Army Corps: 44% of samples taken from unscraped properties in Altadena had elevated lead levels, while 12% of samples taken at unscraped properties in the Palisades had higher levels.

“While the U.S. Army Corps doesn't decrease the risk in the Eaton area down to zero, it does reflect a significant improvement,” Adam Love, the vice president and principal scientist for Roux, said at a virtual community meeting Thursday.

In mid-April, the county released preliminary testing results showing elevated lead levels in soils of properties downwind of the Eaton Fire.

The county did not share data showing how far above health standards the samples were, saying the data had yet to be finalized. California’s state standards for residential properties say lead levels should not exceed 80 parts per million. The federal EPA’s standard is 200 parts per million.

An aerial view of Altadena showing several cleared properties amongst many more awaiting to be cleared of debris and rubble from the Eaton Fire on April 7, 2025.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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The county will update the latest testing data on a dashboard tracking air, soil and water testing in the burn zones.

USC researchers have been doing their own testing with property owners as well, finding some samples that are more than three times the standards.

Professor Seth John, who is spearheading that effort, said the team is starting to shift its focus to understand levels of contamination between cleared versus uncleared properties. (If you’re concerned about how the fires affected your soil, you can get involved with the project here.)

Why the disparity between Altadena and the Palisades?

The reason for the difference between the lead levels in the Palisades and Eaton burn scars is not clear.

“The honest answer is we don't know,” Love said. “ It could be related to the difference in the housing stock and the fact that the houses in the Eaton area are more likely to have lead-based paint.”

Love said it could also be a result of ongoing debris clearing dislodging ash, causing lead and other toxic metals to once again settle on cleared properties.

Or, Love added, it could be that lead was already there. It’s not uncommon to find elevated lead levels in Southern California soil because of the region’s industrial history and past prevalence of lead in fuel and paint.

“ There's a lot of different things that could explain why, but we can't just from the data that we collected,” Love said.

That’s why he and county officials said soil testing should be a part of every rebuild plan, and property owners should target that testing to areas that will be exposed and used, such as playgrounds, outdoor eating areas, gardens or walkways.

But fire survivors worry that could lead to additional debris removal needs and even more costs as they try to rebuild.

Testing downwind and blood tests

The county is also launching a large-scale free soil testing effort on May 19.

“This is targeted specifically to homes downwind of the Eaton Fire, where we saw the most significant findings from the soil sampling,” said Dr. Nichole Quick of the county’s Public Health Department.

Quick said about 26,000 eligible homes will receive a postcard invitation to participate.

The program is expected to run through December.

Residents can also get their soil tested free through USC, which is researching how the fires may have affected soil.

Meanwhile, Quick urged residents, especially those with young children, to take advantage of free blood tests. She said you can ask your doctor for a lead blood test, which is covered by most insurance plans, including Medi-Cal. You can also call (800) LA-4-LEAD (524-5323) to schedule a free test through Quest Labs.

You can also go to one of the upcoming county blood test clinics for a free test:

• May 17, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., 23519 W. Civic Center Way, Malibu.
• May 24, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., La Pintoresca Park, 45 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena

Beyond the Rose Bowl and historic bungalows, Pasadena has stranger tales to tell. David Kalbeitzer has been seeking out those stories where rocket science meets the occult and ghosts haunt the city’s grandest buildings.

For Kalbeitzer, a Disney executive who investigates the paranormal in his free time, his fascination with the city’s mysterious side started when he bought a Victorian north of Old Town.

He sensed a spirit at the open house a dozen years ago and took it as a reason to move his family to Pasadena. Then he started learning the city’s history.

David Kalbeitzer, a paranormal investigator from Pasadena, is giving a talk about the city's strange history Saturday night in Old Town.

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Courtesy of David Kalbeitzer

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“I realized, ‘Oh, this place called us just as much as we were looking for it,’” he said.

On Saturday night, he’s sharing the lore he’s collected at Mesmer Mesmer an Old Town shop and event space. While the event is full, there’s a waitlist, and more talks featuring Kalbeitzer are in the works.

A city of ghost stories 

Ask Kalbeitzer about haunted Pasadena, and the list stretches from alleyways to the Colorado Street Bridge to Castle Green, the turreted former hotel overlooking Central Park.

“The Pasadena Playhouse theater is, you know, very haunted,” he added.

He says playgoers have reported hearing disembodied voices.

“And you look, and there’s no one there, or apparitions that have been seen sort of standing in the corner, and then you walk up, and they kind of disappear,” he said.

As for the spirit that helped draw him to his current Pasadena home?

Kalbeitzer says she’s still around — and a psychic friend says she has a name: Dolores.

“It’s actually haunted by a very kind ghost that looks out for the house, protects my family and has been able to activate our alarm,” he said.

Having a Dolores in the house might send some people running, but Kalbeitzer said he grew up in a haunted house in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

And when his family moved to Charleston, South Carolina, a teenage Kalbeitzer started seeking out places known for paranormal activity.

Rocket science, ritual magic and mind-reading

Having lived in different neighborhoods in L.A., Kalbeitzer says there’s something uniquely otherworldly about Pasadena — and it goes beyond ghost stories.

He said the city has an energy that draws people exploring the unknown, perhaps most famously Jack Parsons.

The rocket pioneer who helped launch the Jet Propulsion Laboratory also practiced ritual magic at his Pasadena home with the likes of L. Ron Hubbard before he founded Scientology.

“Many people call it the occult. I don’t know that I fully subscribe to that, but there is spiritualism and occult mixed in there,” Kalbeitzer said.

Then there was Upton Sinclair, the muckraking author of The Jungle, whose interests while living in Pasadena extended to telepathy and séances.

Upton Sinclair, pictured with his wife Mary Craig Sinclair in 1935, several years after he published a book examining her reported telepathy.

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Los Angeles Times via Wikimedia Commons

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In 1930, Sinclair published Mental Radio, a book about experiments in mind-reading. Albert Einstein provided a preface. Yes, that Einstein, who would spend the following winter at Caltech expanding on the theories of relativity and cosmology.

“Like it’s the craziest mixture of things that were happening at that time and all of it at the same time,” Kalbeitzer said.

A presence in the shop 

The event couldn’t have found a more appropriate venue.

Since opening five months ago in Old Town, Mesmer Mesmer has embraced the dark and mysterious, offering tarot and crystal readings and hosting events on subjects such as hip-hop’s relationship with ghosts.

At that event, a medium told owner Tyke O’Brien she could sense a presence in the shop, which formerly housed a bridal store.

“She goes, ‘Do you ever feel it?’” O’Brien recounted, “And I’m like, ‘I am such a bummer. I really wish I could. How wonderful would that be to be able to?’”

The same can be said for this writer who’s lived and worked in and around Pasadena for years without so much as a brush with the otherworldly.

Kalbeitzer, on the other hand, reports supernatural encounters all around town.

“I think that how you see yourself in the world has a lot more to do with it, and whether you want to have those experiences,” he said.

Los Angeles officials expect construction of a fence around MacArthur Park will start in November and continue through fall 2027. 

At a community meeting Thursday night at MacArthur Park Elementary School, officials said fence installation is now expected to continue through fall 2027, overshooting the previously announced spring 2027 completion date.

Thursday’s meeting highlighted the divide over the city’s plan to fence off MacArthur Park, with tensions rising during public comment. The Los Angeles Police Department says the fence will make drug enforcement easier, while some in the community who volunteer around the park questioned whether it will improve safety enough to justify the cost.

The city has allocated $2.3 million for the project, but officials have not said whether that will cover the full cost.

Installation of the green metal fence around the park’s perimeter is expected to begin in November and take about a year. A second phase, adding decorative elements to the fence, is planned for fall and winter 2027. Officials said the schedule could change because of weather or other unforeseen circumstances.

The park is expected to remain open during construction.

Capt. Ben Fernandes with the LAPD’s Rampart Division said the fence would create a barrier along Alvarado Street and other areas where officers have seen people using narcotics. That would allow police to focus more of their enforcement efforts inside the park, he said.

“So if people are going deeper into the park to use, that’ll make it easier for us to go in and do enforcement on them and arrest them for that use,” Fernandes said. 

MacArthur Park will close every night once an 8-foot-tall fence goes up around the green space, with Los Angeles police officers sweeping the park for encampments and people sleeping there before the gates shut. The Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners approved the plan Thursday.

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LA Recreation and Parks

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“I’ve been an officer for 29 years, and I’ve always known I can go buy drugs there, and I did as a narcotics officer. So what I’m saying is, we are trying to make it not convenient,” he added. 

Fernandes also said the city plans to enhance the park’s existing camera network. LAPD officers and Los Angeles Park Rangers will be able to monitor the cameras from their respective stations, he said. City officials are still evaluating whether additional cameras will be needed to address blind spots in the park after construction is complete.

Ariana Walker, who visits MacArthur Park every Saturday with a group of friends who pool their own resources to distribute food and hygiene kits, questioned whether the city had shown that the fence would improve safety and how much it would cost to maintain.

“The fence is a $2.3 million fence at the base level,” she said. “And they haven’t given us any indication of how much more it’s going to cost for upkeep, to keep anybody safe. There’s no conclusive evidence that a fence is going to stop crime the way that they’re suggesting.”

The meeting grew tense when John Alle, a local property owner whose family owns the building that houses Langer’s Delicatessen across the street from the park, objected to having his comments read from a written comment card rather than speaking directly to officials. Alle has been a vocal critic of the city’s response to drug activity and public safety concerns around MacArthur Park.

He was allowed to comment during the meeting and said the city needs to take a tougher approach to drug use and sales around the park. 

“We see knife attacks at all hours of the day. It’s out of control. And it’s not gotten any better,” he said. “We want to bring it back to where it was 15 or 20 years ago.”

Los Angeles officials expect construction of a fence around MacArthur Park will start in November and continue through fall 2027.

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Gary Coronado

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The LA Local

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Alle pointed to public events at the park, including an upcoming Día de los Muertos celebration and a Labor Day weekend picnic hosted by Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman as positive developments for the space. But he added those events do not reflect conditions throughout the park.

Officials also outlined other planned improvements, including restoring access through the tunnels connecting the park’s north and south sides, making accessibility upgrades and providing free Wi-Fi for parkgoers. 

Residents who want to provide input on the fence’s decorative elements can email admin@themorcosgroup.com or call (310) 479-4727 for more information.

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