The Brief

Last January, fires were raging across Los Angeles, smothering some 20 million people across the region in toxic smoke and ash.

L.A. residents worried that the air was toxic, the soil contaminated, and the water poisoned. Questions swirled about the health risks created by the burns — and there were few answers at hand from city, state or federal leaders.

Scientists from Los Angeles and around the country quickly scrambled into action as fires burned through the Pacific Palisades and Altadena. The priority, says UCLA physician and disaster researcher David Eisenman, was keeping people safe in the short term. But the fires also presented a moment to learn crucial missing information about the health effects of wildfires to help those affected and to better protect people's health from the inevitable next ones.

"This won't be the last wildfire that Los Angeles sees," says Eisenman. "Part of the community recovery process is to learn from what we experienced."

Researchers fanned out across the city to collect what data and samples they could. Doctors started thinking of ways to collect patient data to better understand the immediate and long-term health impact. They soon joined together to form a consortium that tied together 10 research institutions, developing a phalanx of research studies to explore some of the most pressing questions brought up by affected community members.

Some questions were simple but frustratingly hard to find answers to, like: What was in the smoke? Other questions, like those exploring the long-term health impacts, will take years to untangle. But answers are beginning to emerge.

Extra-dangerous smoke

Wildfire smoke is dangerous under any conditions. Exposure to high smoke levels is linked to respiratory problems such as asthma and COPD, cardiovascular issues and even dementia.

But from the first moment the Palisades and Eaton fires took hold last January, UCLA air pollution expert Yifang Zhu knew they were different. Because it wasn't just trees and plants burning: There was plastic from people's houses, and car batteries and asbestos tiles — a "toxic soup" of air pollutants, she says.

What was in that soup, and how dangerous it might be to human health — that wasn't clear. Official air quality monitors in downtown Los Angeles, miles away from the heart of the fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, recorded high levels of lead and arsenic in the air during the burns. Researchers from Caltech and the Georgia Institute of Technology later measured lead concentrations in air samples both near and far from the fires. Lead levels, they found, were elevated, even miles away, signaling that smoke and ash from the burns spread the dangerous heavy metal widely.

But many scientists suspected the smoke and ash spread other toxic particles and gases widely, too — chemicals that standard EPA and state monitors didn't test.

"We need to test more than just what the EPA calls for. And the EPA has limited resources," says Kari Nadeau, an environmental health scientist at Harvard University and one of the leads for the new research consortium. "But as academics, we can test for hundreds of things all at once, which helps the community. Because what you don't know, you don't know, but it can still hurt you."

Before the fires, Zhu and her team had been getting ready to sample the air at Aliso Canyon, where a natural gas leak in 2015 had caused major health problems for nearby residents. When the fires broke out, the team pivoted, taking their sampling equipment as close to the fires as they could.

That opportunity was special. Researchers are rarely ready to deploy at a moment's notice to capture samples during disasters such as the LA fires. The special circumstances let Zhu's team "set the stage about what's going on during this active fire burning all week," Zhu says.

Dust and ash from the Palisades and Eaton fires spread across the Los Angeles region.

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Zhu's team set up air filters to capture the ash, and they captured air samples inside and outside homes in the Palisades and Eaton fire regions. In the air samples, they looked for more than 20 different volatile organic compounds — gases, many of which harm human health, and are likely to be produced by the fires. And while the fires were still burning, they measured high levels of benzene, a carcinogen, at their outdoor sites.

Lingering risks

The high benzene levels dissipated after the burning stopped, Zhu found. But other dangerous gases actually increased later on, especially indoors. A few health-harming gases, including toluene and carbon tetrachloride, became more concentrated inside people's homes a few weeks after the fire.

The message was clear. "The fire impact doesn't really disappear with the active flame," Zhu says. Homes themselves can absorb dangerous gases in the drywall, furniture and other soft materials, releasing them for days and weeks after the smoke has dissipated. People need to know that their homes might be contaminated long after the fire is out, she says.

That wasn't the only lingering risk. Another research team started to look for a contaminant called hexavalent chromium, which can cause cancer, sometimes known as the "Erin Brockovich" contaminant, made famous by the movie of the same name. It can be produced when fires burn through certain types of soil or rock, as well as during industrial processes like welding. It's not often searched for after wildfires, but the researchers found it lingering in the air around cleanup sites long after the fires were out.

"It's actually one of those things that … makes you pay attention differently," says Joe Allen, an exposure scientist at Harvard University, who has been conducting ongoing research on building safety after the fires. And the contaminant was found in tiny particles so small that they can penetrate deep into people's lungs, bodies, and even directly to their brains.

"We've seen hexavalent chromium in soils after fires. I don't think anybody expected to see it in air. I don't think anybody expected to see it exclusively in the nanoparticle size range," Allen says.

Ash also contaminated people's homes, as well as soil and water across the region. The water impacts seemed to clear quickly, though longer-term effects are still being tracked. But levels of lead and other heavy metals inside people's homes and in the soil around them often remained high, even after cleanup was supposedly done.

"That is an ongoing question," says Allen. "Do we have enough funds to remediate all these properties, or are we just putting some people back into properties that are not properly cleared?"

Zhu was impressed by how much she and others learned about the dangerous smoke and ash. But she also worries they probably only scratched the surface. "We are only detecting things that our method allows us to detect. So even though we learn a lot from that, you know, I wonder what we missed," she says.

What does this all mean for people's health?

Scientists have known that in the short term, wildfire smoke exposure leads to more respiratory issues, such as asthma and COPD; increases the risk of developing dementia; and affects people's immune responses. But the full array of impacts, and the long-term costs of exposure, are still muddy.

"We know a lot about the health effects of wildfire smoke," says Allen. But "we don't know all that much about urban wildfire smoke. We certainly don't know what happens when you expose a population of 20 million people in the greater Los Angeles area to smoke like this, enriched in these toxic metals and other pollutants. "

The research is beginning to uncover some of the health impacts.

Cheng and colleagues collected data from the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai, one of the busiest in the region, and particularly close to the Palisades fire. In the 90 days following the fires, they saw a 24% increase in respiratory issues — and a 47% jump in heart attacks.

It was "very striking," she says. "This actually surpassed heart attack rates during January of all prior years, even during the worst years of COVID."

Homes and businesses in parts of Los Angeles were reduced to rubble and ash.

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Abnormal blood tests also spiked, increasing by more than 100% over previous levels. That included unexpected blood sugar readings, signs of a disrupted immune system, and changes to people's metabolic profiles — signals, Cheng says, of bodywide stresses that could be precursors to many different health problems down the line.

"For a very large number of people who lived through these January wildfires, the wildfire exposures led to some kind of a biochemical or metabolic stress in the body that likely affected not just one, but many organ systems," she says.

The team is now tracking some of those patients, trying to understand what health issues their unusual bloodwork might have signaled coming.

The ER data is likely just skimming the surface, says Eisenman. Longer-term health problems, from heart issues to mental health stresses, are likely to linger or develop in the coming years.

Ongoing research will explore the different health outcomes for people who experienced different levels of smoke and toxin exposure. A UCLA-led study has enrolled over 4,000 people from across the city to follow their health changes long-term. Another study will focus on the specific health outcomes for those who stayed behind at their homes to fight the fires, giving them extraordinarily high smoke doses. The LA Fire Health study consortium is also tracking the long-term health impacts on firefighters and first responders.

Much of the emerging research is being supported by private philanthropy, says Eisenman. The wildfires happened just before the Trump administration began its campaign to tighten budgets for many of the science agencies that have historically funded post-disaster research, like the National Science Foundation.

"That gap was really filled in by the research community, who did ongoing and extensive and really thoughtful testing of air, of water, of soil, of debris for toxins, and really rapidly communicated those results back to the community," he says. But how to financially support the long-term future of some key studies, he says, is still uncertain, because many major federal research funding resources — like NSF and the National Institute of Health — have shifted priorities under the Trump administration.

How to protect yourself and your family

The biggest questions for the ongoing research, many of the researchers say, are about how best to protect yourself from similar fires in the future.

Allen says there are some clear lessons. Overall, the less smoke one inhales, the better. So while outside, he says it's crucial to wear an N95 mask, or even a respirator that can protect you from the fire's gases.

Indoors, keeping clean air is crucial, says Zhu. Using air filters, ideally HEPA-rated, can lower indoor pollution significantly. Carbon filters are particularly effective at removing the gases, Allen says. People can also install HEPA filters in a car's air-handling system to keep the air clean while they drive.

"You want to control what you can control," says Allen. So inside your space, clean up dust and ash thoroughly. Filter the air. And consider a low-cost air monitor to keep track of the air quality inside.

For people most impacted by the fires, Allen stresses that adequate cleanup of soil and buildings is critical. "It was a bit of the Wild West out there" after the fires, he says. A lack of standardized testing protocols and a hodgepodge of policies from different insurers "really harmed the survivor community."

That lack of guidance left many unsure whether their homes were safe to live in again, and many others were forced to go back to homes that were demonstrably still unsafe.

"We need more coordinated recommendations and rules to help people know whether their homes are safe," Allen says.

It will take years to get a full picture of the health impacts of the LA fires, many of the researchers say. But it's critical to learn from the tragedy, says Nadeau, the Harvard environmental health scientist — to "be able to say, OK, in the future, here's what to do to protect your children or protect your elderly community against stroke," or lung cancer, or the myriad other risks from the wildfires that will, inevitably, come again.

Reporting for this story was supported by the Nova Institute for Health.

Copyright 2026 NPR

A pair of nesting bald eagles was spotted in Los Angeles County this past week, according to a social media post from the Department of Parks and Recreation. (You can check out the full post and video on Instagram.)

The Department of Parks and Recreation did not disclose the exact location of the birds.

Nesting bald eagles are a fairly rare sight in Southern California, since they're more commonly found close to the California-Oregon border.

A look at where bald eagles typically nest.

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Of course, there are notable exceptions, including Southern California's most famous bald eagles: Big Bear's Jackie and Shadow, whose yearly attempts at parenthood have become big national news on occasion.

Typically, bald eagles' mating season is from January through July or August, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

What to do if you're lucky enough to see them IRL

Park officials are reminding everyone that bald eagles are a federally protected species and disturbing their nests could “disrupt breeding and impact their success.”

The history

Bald eagles were once close to extinction in the lower 48 U.S. states. By the early 1970s, there were fewer than 30 pairs in California, all in the northern part of the state. The species has rebounded since being protected under federal and state laws.

What's next

It takes about 35 days for bald eagle eggs to incubate. If the L.A.'s new eagle residents lay eggs, Los Angeles could have our very own eaglets as early as next month.

Held by the Los Angeles Review of Books since 2019, LITLIT, or The Little Literary Fair, started out as a way to introduce students from workshops to the publishing industry.

It has since grown into a gathering of independent West Coast publishers from Seattle to Santa Monica. This year’s iteration on June 6 and 7 is the biggest yet, with more than 50 publishers participating in the event at Sci-Arc in Downtown L.A.

People look through a small library of used books from "A Good Used Book," a Los Angeles based book pop-up, during LITLIT 2024.

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It’s ‘small’ lit

The fair aims to get the public in front of books that don’t originate from the so-called “Big Five” publishers — behemoths like Penguin Random House and HarperCollins.

“They really get to control what people get to see, and so we hope LITLIT lets people see more of what is out there and what they can support directly,” said Emily VanKoughnett, public programs and engagement director for LARB.

One of VanKoughnett’s favorite independent publishers will be there. Two Lines Press, the publishing arm of San Francisco’s Center for the Art of Translation, deals specifically in translated works.

Two Lines Press, which specializes in translated works, show off their books to attendees of LITLIT.

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They’ve published authors from across the world, translating books from more than 100 different languages into English.

“ We do our work in quiet rooms, so it's really nice to be able to meet readers and talk to them about what's interesting them. These festivals are really valuable to us in that way,” said CJ Evans, publisher and editor-in-chief of Two Lines.

Pressed locally

Local favorite Angel City Press, which operates under the auspices of L.A. Public Library, will also be there with one of their newly published titles, Los Angeles Central Library POPS, that celebrates 100 years of the Central Library.

People at LITLIT 2024 look through different small presses.

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You’ll also find LA-based Errant Press, which specializes in books that break the traditional form — like a poem printed on measuring tape or a matchbox sized poetry collection.

“It’s really cool to see the kinds of risks that people are able to take, the kinds of communities they’re able to serve and really highlight here on the West Coast,” said Irene Yoon, executive director of LARB.

Panels, printing presses, and workshops

The two-day fair also hosts various panels and workshops, including one on the art of comedic writing and another on how to tell the stories of Los Angeles through archival materials.

“This is, I think, the most panels we've ever done,” VanKoughnett said.

People sit down for a panel discussion at LITLIT 2024.

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Workshops on how to navigate the literary world with a completed manuscript and making your own comics and zines are also on the itinerary.

And Carson’s International Printing Museum will demonstrate how to screen print your own bookmark.

“It's not until we're all in the same room with all our best books literally out on the table that you get to see kind of what a phenomenal publishing culture Los Angeles truly has,” said Terri Accomazzo, editorial director of Angel City Press.

Running a small business is tough under normal circumstances. Running one in a wildfire burn scar can feel nearly impossible.

That's the reality many Altadena business owners are still navigating nearly a year and a half after the Eaton Fire destroyed the community and the local economy. Businesses are grappling with how do you stay open when so many of your customers are gone?

At Wet Paws, a pet grooming business along Lake Avenue, that question recently came to a head.

The shop reopened in January but business remained slow. Wet Paws co-owner Stephanie Trujillo estimates the fire had displaced up to 90% of their customers.

Marley, a Cane Corso from Pasadena, went for her first grooming session at Wet Paws in more than a year.

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Then came a conversation with their landlord several months ago that forced a decision.

"He reached out and said, 'Are you going to re-sign your lease?'" Trujillo recalled.

The answer wasn't obvious.

"I said, unfortunately, we're not even making it. We're paying out of our own pocket," she said. "So he said, 'I'll give you until June 1.'"

The deadline meant Trujillo and her mother, Linda Alashti, who have owned the business together since 2023, had only a few months to figure out whether Wet Paws had a future in Altadena.

Wet Paws is hardly alone. As businesses struggle, Los Angeles County recently launched a program offering free marketing assistance and storefront improvements to fire-affected businesses. The deadline to apply is June 8.

A flag banner and sandwich board on the sidewalk outside Wet Paws advertises its services.

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The county also operates a gift card program to encourage residents to spend money at fire-impacted businesses.

But relief has not arrived quickly enough for many businesses.

One particularly slow April Sunday at Wet Paws drove home how dire the situation had become, when they had only one customer.

As she drove home to Fontana, Trujillo began composing a social media post.

"So this isn't easy for us to share," the post began, "but I wanted to reach out with an open heart and hope."

In the message, Trujillo asked the community to book appointments and spread the word to help their business survive.

Before posting it, Trujillo showed it to her mother.

Wet Paws groomer Elizabeth Ranes takes care of a basset hound client.

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"We're very prideful, and it's very hard to ask people for help," she said. "I felt embarrassed that we had to ask the community for help."

Her mother's advice was simple. "Just post it," she told her. "The worst that's going to happen is nobody sees it or nobody cares."

Instead, the opposite happened. By the next day, the post had been viewed and shared hundreds of times across Instagram and Facebook.

The phone started ringing, said Wet Paws groomer Elizabeth Ranes.

"I got well over 50 calls," Ranes said. "We booked out for the last three weeks of the month when we made that post.”

Customers told Alashti that they “didn't know you were back, because they don't come this way anymore.”

Decor inside Wet Paws embraces a playful canine motif.

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Among those who returned was Penny Dahlstrom, a Pasadena resident whose 113-pound Cane Corso Marley had been a Wet Paws regular before the fire.

Dahlstrom had tried taking Marley to a large pet store chain while Wet Paws was closed.

"My husband went in to pick her up, and he hears crying, and it was her," Dahlstrom said. "That's not just her nature."

The social media appeal didn't just bring back former customers. It also introduced the business to new ones, Trujillo said.

But recovery remains uneven.

Some days are still slow. And the shop continues to deal with lingering fire-related electrical damage in the back of the building.

Wet Paws is operating on a temporary electrical system, limiting how much power it can use at any given time.

"If we run our AC, and the neighbors run their AC, we lose power," Trujillo said.

As the June 1 lease deadline approached, Trujillo and her mother weighed their options. They could walk away and cut their losses. Or they could commit to rebuilding alongside a community they had come to love.

Ultimately, they thought about the response to their post and the customers who had shown up when the business needed them most. And they had faith that Altadena would rebuild to its full strength.

They chose to renew the lease for another three years.

"I can't imagine what the community is going through, losing their homes and losing everything that they had," Trujillo said. "Yet they're still coming back."

And as long as they do, she said Wet Paws will be there for them and their fur babies.

On a recent Monday, students at Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights started their day like no other — with a tour of the murals hand-painted over the weekend across the playground.

It’s the latest of seven elementary schools in and around L.A. to get the treatment. Over 70 murals in the last 13 years, brought by a collective of artists to students in under-resourced neighborhoods with little access to art education.

“The kids were so excited,” said Stefanie Barbee, a math teacher at Breed. “Just pure joy.”

The students snaked through the paintings on handball courts and school walls: cartoon animals, bright orange flowers, a circle of meticulously painted lines. The works span genres and sensibilities.

Mural by artist hi-dutch.

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“It's grassroots. We're not getting money from anyone,” said Erik Caruso, the fifth grade teacher in Paramount who's the group glue. To them, they are just an assembly of like-minded friends — and friends of friends — who spend one weekend out of the year hanging out and painting murals for school kids.

But the collective is anything but typical. It includes artists like the late Rich Jacobs, who died from leukemia this year; Tim Kerr; pro skater Ray Barbee; and Japanese artists Yusuke Hanai and hi-dutch. The vibe's always low-key, and somehow they've managed to stay under the radar.

Mural by artist Yusuke Hanai.

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Mural by artist Yusuke Hanai.

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“The kids have no idea that they show in huge galleries or have pieces hanging in museums,” said writer Martin Wong, co-founder of the pioneering Asian pop culture magazine Giant Robot. "Or they're famous in the skateboarding scene or surf or music."

Their reward is the Monday morning after, seeing the happiness on the kids’ faces.

“The artists are waiting all weekend — it’s that moment,” Caruso said.

Mural by artists Sandy Yang and James Hamblin.

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James Hamblin was at Breed for the meet-and-greet earlier this month. He painted a mural designed by his partner Sandy Yang on one of the handball walls.

“Sandy's design is pretty abstract, so it was interesting because the kids were [asking], you know, ‘ What is it?’” Hamblin said. “It was great because I could tell them I had no idea and like, ‘What do you guys think it is?’"

Bring the art museum to the school

Erik Caruso.

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The idea came to Caruso in 2011, after he took about two dozen students from his Paramount school to MOCA and discovered that only four had ever been to an art museum.

“I wonder if there's a way we can bring the art museum to the school,” he said.

Caruso, a 24-year veteran, was no stranger to bringing art — and artists — directly to his students. In 2009, he launched a monthly art project for fifth graders that culminated in a year-end show where they met and shared work with living contemporary artists.

Caruso's 5th grade art project, featuring works by artist Tim Kerr.

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The murals were next.

They painted their first ones at his school in 2012. Soon, the project expanded to the rest of Los Angeles.

Crew at work

Mural by artist Chris Johanson.

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Mural by artist Chris Johanson.

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The painting takes place between Friday and Sunday, but planning takes months.

At Breed, the connection was made through math teacher Barbee — wife of Ray — who is on a two-year stint at the Boyle Heights school to help students catch up on the subject.

“I had sort of planted that seed that at some point I would love for a school I was working at to be the recipient of the beautiful work,” she said.

Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights.

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She brought Caruso out for a site visit last September.

“He has a really amazing kind of vision about where to place the artists … based on just their artwork and where it is in relation to the street view,” Barbee said.

Next came an introduction to the principal and the approval process.

“One of the biggest challenges with what we are doing is, you know, they want flipping dolphins and stuff like that,” Caruso said. “But we want to cross over into fine art pieces.”

Mural by artists Lookout & Wonderland

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Mural by artists Lookout & Wonderland

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Paying it forward

Caruso estimated that as many as 40 artists and musicians have joined the effort.

The core group now, he said, is about 11 people, and friends and families often tag along to help out, given they have just 16 hours over three days to finish the job.

Mural by artist Oitama.

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Mural by artist Lori Damiano.

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Among the regulars: Wong and his wife, Wendy Lau, who once organized DIY punk shows to fund music education at their daughter's Chinatown school. In Caruso, they saw a kindred spirit.

Caruso later brought the collective to paint at that school and eventually invited their daughter, Linda Lindas bassist Eloise Wong, to join his fifth grade art and music project.

“All of these kids on the blacktop were all just screaming their hearts out,” Eloise said. “It's cool how Erik — Mr. Caruso to them — shows them, like, raw ways to express themselves through cool art.”