The Brief

After the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires, federal officials and private companies led a patchwork of efforts to remove debris and contaminated material from areas that burned and others covered in toxic ash.

One year later, homeowners have had the inside of their houses tested after completing remediation and many found hazardous levels of chemicals including lead and asbestos. Community groups and scientists who have worked together on testing projects are now pushing for a more stringent certification system to ensure families don’t move into homes with dangerous levels of pollutants.

In Pasadena and Altadena, a group of fire survivors formed Eaton Fire Residents United to help each other navigate the various post-fire challenges, notably: making sure their homes were adequately cleaned of contaminants. After not getting clear answers from their insurance companies, members of the group hired experts who began testing their homes following the disaster. The insides of 50 homes were also tested after being remediated. Out of 45 where interior surfaces were wiped down to test for lead, 43 had at least some level of contamination with the toxic metal, which has no safe level of exposure and can cause learning disabilities, lower IQs and other permanent developmental problems.

Nicole Maccalla is a longtime Altadena resident and data scientist who co-founded Eaton Fire Residents United last January and leads its data work. She said her insurance company has not approved any testing for contaminants.

“You’ve got a whole bunch of variability in testing approaches and practices, and it’s just left residents navigating through just a nightmare,” Maccalla said. “Basically, trying to figure out and educate their [insurance] adjuster at the same time while they’re displaced, and while they’re trying to navigate recovery and jobs and families.”

The California Department of Public Health, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, Los Angeles County and City of Pasadena health officials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said they do not have any standards for testing inside homes after fires in the wildland urban interface, the transition zone between developed areas and unoccupied land. Fires in those areas, including in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, raise increased health concerns because of the toxic materials they burn through.

The Los Angeles County and Pasadena public health departments said they do not currently employ any wildland urban interface fire experts to provide recommendations for further remediation. Agency inspectors examining homes have not been trained in assessing wildfire or smoke damage. Without official guidance, residents are left to let the market present the best way forward.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were tasked with removing hazardous waste from the sites of homes that burned down. That two-phase process was completed about seven months after the fires after the fires killed 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. For several months, the Federal Emergency Management Agency refused to fund analyses of contaminated soil as part of the debris removal process, although the agency had funded testing in the past. In a remarkable about-face earlier this month, the agency announced it would conduct lead testing at the sites of 100 homes destroyed in the Eaton fire.

Further hampering residents’ efforts to find answers was the Trump administration’s closure of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development, which was responsible for analyzing threats posed by hazards like toxic chemicals, climate change, wildfires and water pollution.

Many residents feared that the ash and soot left behind contained toxic chemicals that would expose their families to ongoing health risks. In the days following the fires, scientists from across Los Angeles and other parts of the country lent their expertise to help monitor contaminants in the communities surrounding the burn areas. The results show dangerous contaminants remain in homes, parks, schools and beaches in or near the Los Angeles County burn areas.

While experts believe that the lead and asbestos being detected most likely came from building materials and lead paint in older homes that burned, there are concerns about wider health effects from the fires. A December study from Cedars-Sinai found a drastic increase in emergency room visits for heart attacks, pulmonary and general illness from January to April 2025. In another scientific study published in August, researchers estimated that 409 people were killed by health problems resulting from exposure to pollution from the smoke.

Seth John, associate professor of earth sciences at the University of Southern California, is one of the researchers who sprang into action after the fires. In what began as a volunteer project, he and other faculty and students (as well as his daughters) drove through the area surrounding the Eaton burn, sweeping up ash and soot for analysis. They kept up the sampling throughout the year, and expanded their efforts under a project called Contaminant Level Evaluation and Analysis for Neighborhoods, or CLEAN, which has invited people across L.A. County to submit soil samples from their homes, parks and schools for lead testing. John and the rest of the team have continued to find elevated levels of lead in areas near the Eaton fire.

“We expect those levels of lead to persist for some time until the remediation is really complete,” John said. “Until all of that material is removed, you’re going to see elevated lead there.”

Eaton Fire Residents United is calling on local, state and federal officials to establish and enforce a “comprehensive clearance” requirement that homes be certified as free of toxic chemicals before people are allowed to move in. U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, whose district includes the Eaton Fire area, told Pasadena Now she found the group’s findings “deeply alarming,” and she has urged Gov. Gavin Newsom, state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to support a pre-occupancy clearance standard.

Lead is just one of dozens of toxic materials experts are concerned about residents being exposed to in the wake of the fires. Eaton Fire Residents United conducted a review of indoor contamination in homes post-remediation and found that asbestos was present in nine of 25 houses that were tested for the cancer-causing material.

UCLA, Purdue University and Loyola Marymount University are leading another effort to monitor the soil and air for pollutants from the fires. Initial findings from dozens of samples submitted by residents to that program found that lead concentrations in soil were higher where the Eaton fire burned in Pasadena and Altadena than in areas burned in the Palisades fire. Soil samples were also tested for elements such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, selenium and zinc. Researchers behind both that project and the USC-led effort plan to continue monitoring the soil and air in the areas surrounding the fires for the next several years.

Residents and researchers have put so much effort into monitoring because they understand that only prolonged observation will allow them to determine whether remediation efforts were successful.

“If we don’t handle these houses, then for the next 20, 30 years, people are exposed,” Maccalla said.

Copyright 2026 Capital & Main

Some government funding streams for L.A. County’s public health system are drying up, and officials are turning to private philanthropy to fill the gap.

A new privately funded foundation launched Thursday to strengthen public health services after $50 million in federal, state and local funding cuts to the county’s Department of Public Health since early last year.

“It is really a hard day for our community when we have to ask for private donations to fund a public good, but unfortunately, we've lost too much money to not take this important step,” said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.

In February, the county’s Public Health Department closed seven clinics, with six remaining open. About half of the patients seen in those clinics are uninsured, according to county officials. The department also cut hundreds of staff positions.

Ferrer is on the board of the new foundation, The Fund for Advancing Public Health LA, which held its first meeting Thursday.

She said the fund will help the county maintain its basic public health infrastructure, including disease prevention, health promotion, environmental health, and emergency response efforts.

Other board members include several health insurance executives, as well as actors Sean Penn and Danny Trejo. Board member Saree Kayne of the R&S Kayne Foundation pledged $150,000 to the fund Thursday. Kayne said she hopes the donation encourages others to give.

The foundation aims to raise $2 million this year.

More cuts expected

L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell said it’s crucial to have an alternative funding stream to protect services for the county's most vulnerable residents.

“We are saving public health,” Mitchell said. “This fund represents a new approach, one that brings together government philanthropy in the private sector to invest in community-based solutions, protect vulnerable populations, and strengthen our public health infrastructure.”

Officials say more public health cuts are coming, through the federal budget law known as the "Big Beautiful Bill," which slashes funding for Medi-Cal.

The county Department of Public Health anticipates losing up to $300 million in revenue over the next three years because of the federal budget bill and other potential funding freezes. Federal funding accounts for almost 50% of the public health budget, according to county officials.

Mitchell also led an effort to put a half-percent county sales tax increase to fund public health on the June ballot.

If approved by voters, that proposal, known as Measure ER, is expected to raise about $1 billion a year for county safety net health services, including about $100 million for the public health department.

Board members

The Fund for Advancing Public Health LA announced its founding board of directors, which includes:

• Dr. Barbara Ferrer, LA County Department of Public Health director
• Debbie I. Chang, Blue Shield of California Foundation CEO
• Sean Penn, actor and co-founder of Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE)
• Martha Santana-Chin, LA Care Health Plan CEO
• Saree Kayne, R&S Kayne Foundation CEO
• Danny Trejo, actor and restaurateur
• Jarrett Barrios, an executive at the American Red Cross
• Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, Charles R. Drew University College of Medicine Dean
• Kristin McCowan, an executive at the Los Angeles Dodgers

The Rose Bowl in Pasadena may be a centenarian, but it’s holding up pretty well as it continues to host events on its way to a starring role in the LA28 Olympics.

But before it can host the soccer final, it needs fixes, especially to the infrastructure serving the bathrooms and drinking fountains. Fears of a toilet backup while in the world’s spotlight led Rep. Laura Friedman to seek federal funds for upgrades. On Thursday she announced she secured just over $1 million.

“Two years from now, athletes around the world are going to compete for gold right where we are standing. This is not the time to find out whether or not these pipes are up to the task,” Friedman said.

The planned work, she added, will lead to improved water flow capacity and water drainage, eliminating the risk of backups and emergency maintenance.

The funds came from the House of Representatives Interior and Environment subcommittee. The fixes, an official said, will be completed by the LA28 Olympics.

The funds, however, are a drop in the bucket when it comes to what’s needed to make needed improvements to the Pasadena venue.

Officials, including (left to right) Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation President Dedan Brozino, Deputy Fire Chief of the City of Pasadena Tim Sell, Congresswoman Laura Friedman, and Rose Bowl Stadium CEO Jens Weiden announced infrastructure funding for the 103-year old Rose Bowl.

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/LAist

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“Over the  next 20 years there's about $200 million that we need to put in and that's everything from updating light fixtures to updating gas, water, wastewater lines, etc.,” said Dedan Brozino,  president of the Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation, the nonprofit that supports the Rose Bowl stadium's preservation and enhancement.

Getting venues ready will be expensive

The money is a much-needed win at a time when elected officials in city, county, state and federal offices have been struggling to find the funds to get L.A.-area venues ready for the global Olympic stage in two years.

The entrance to a men's bathroom at the Rose Bowl.

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A $360 million proposal to spruce up asphalt in parking lots around Exposition Park won’t be done in time for the Olympics, as originally planned. Meanwhile, just up the street, there’s concern that a $2.6 billion expansion of the L.A. Convention Center, which is hosting Olympic wrestling, fencing and judo in 2028 won’t be ready for the Olympics.

Additionally, to save money, LA28 organizers moved Olympic diving to the Rose Bowl complex last year because it has two Olympic-sized pools, while the Exposition Park complex doesn't and would need expensive upgrades.

Topline:

About the chick: The chick hatched March 14. The zoo opened its Cape vulture enclosure in February 2025 after years of planning to encourage the birds to roost and nest, welcoming a new breeding pair that year. When it grows to be an adult, it’ll have a wingspan of 8 1/2 feet.

About the enclosure: The L.A. Zoo said it spent years developing the vulture habitat, which was designed to mimic the vultures’ natural environment in South Africa and nearby countries. Dominick Dorsa II, the zoo’s director of animal care, said in a statement the successful hatching is “a testament to the design and construction” of the habitat.

How to see the chick: You can’t for the time being. Zoo officials are keeping it away from visitors until the chick matures, though you can still see adult Cape vultures at the zoo’s enclosure.

Though visitors will have to wait until the chick matures to see it in the enclosure, you can still take in the impressive eight and a half foot wingspan of the adult Cape vultures.

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Courtesy Jamie Pham/L.A. Zoo

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What zoo officials are saying: “Welcoming a Cape vulture chick is a thrilling moment for our team and a beacon of hope for African vultures,” the L.A. Zoo’s curator of birds Rose Legato said in a statement. “Vultures are one of nature's most misunderstood marvels, and I cannot wait for our guests to eventually watch this chick grow and learn just how vital they are to our ecosystems.”

About the species: Cape vultures are listed as a vulnerable species due to human activities and encroachment. According to the L.A. Zoo, African vultures are more closely related to eagles and hawks than vultures native to the Americas, like the zoo's California condors that hatched last year.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

What should have been a celebration for formerly incarcerated youth completing a reentry program at the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory (BHAC) last week instead ended with seven students and two staff members detained by the Los Angeles Police Department, according to witnesses. 

Now, nearly a week later, BHAC staff and city officials are demanding answers from the LAPD, with some accusing officers of racial profiling. 

According to the LAPD, officers observed a large group gathered on the corner of Cesar E. Chavez Avenue and Mott Street around 4:16 p.m. on March 26. Authorities then requested backup for what they described as “a large group surrounding officers,” LAPD Public Information Officer Tony Im said. 

The group, classified by police as an “aggressive gang group,” consisted of seven 18-year-old students from the BHAC’s Bridge Academy Movement (BAM) program and two BHAC staff members.

The BAM program pays formerly incarcerated youth to complete 200-250 hours in media and visual arts training to prepare them for creative careers. That day, students were set to showcase their work at the BAM program graduation for families and community members. 

Rene Weber, a teaching artist at the BHAC, had been with the students setting up for the ceremony minutes before the incident occurred. 

According to Weber, the students had gone to coffee across the street at Milpa Kitchen as they often did, when staff were alerted that they were being detained. 

Weber said he arrived to find students and a staff member pressed against the wall in handcuffs. 

Video from the scene, taken by a staff member at the BHAC, shows multiple officers surrounding the group. At one point, an officer orders a person to “get on the wall” and displays a stun gun.  

“No, none of that, these are kids right here,” the staff member replies.

Another staff member, Teotl Veliz, recorded a large police response.  

“I counted 12 cop cars, that’s at least 25 cops, and they had a helicopter,” Veliz said. “It was just so comedic, tragically comedic, that it was on their graduation day too.”

Officers established a perimeter with yellow tape along the side of Ashley’s Beauty Salon as local business owners and witnesses gathered around the students. 

“I was just incredibly disappointed in LAPD… because it became so apparent to everybody, all at the same time, that it was racial profiling and nothing else,” Veliz said.

Weber said officers gave shifting explanations for the stop at the scene, including blocking the sidewalk and possible underage vaping. After Weber told the officers that all of the students were 18, they said they would investigate whether the group had any gang affiliation. 

Police have not responded to questions about what led officers to believe that the group was gang-affiliated. 

Weber recalled pleading with the officers to let the group go and explaining to them that they worked across the street. Community members and local business owners also stepped in to vouch for the students. 

“Our job is to help them gain a new perspective on life,” Weber said. “They’re coming out of juvenile detention and they’re turning their lives around. We can do our part in keeping them off the streets and keeping them doing better but what does it mean if they’re going to be profiled and treated exactly the same way?” 

In total, seven 18-year-old students and two staff members were detained. BHAC staff said one student and one staff member were taken to Hollenbeck Community Police Station and released less than two hours later after advocacy from community members and Councilmember Ysabel Jurado.

The incident ultimately resulted in an infraction for smoking a cannabis e-vape on a public sidewalk, according to a photo of the infraction shared with the Beat. LAPD did not provide details about the people taken to Hollenbeck Station or the infraction. 

The graduation ceremony was cancelled that night and is expected to be rescheduled in April. 

“Graduation should be a moment of pride and possibility — not fear,” Jurado said in a statement. “I’m seeking answers about what occurred, and this underscores the need for stronger relationships between law enforcement and community organizations so moments like these are protected, not disrupted.”

Carmelita Ramirez‑Sanchez, the conservatory’s executive director, said she was grateful to the community and Jurado for advocating for the students’ release. Jurado met her at Hollenbeck Station within 20 minutes of being alerted to the incident, she said. 

“They had store owners, señoras, barbers, that ran out and were trying to explain to the police who our kids were,” Ramirez‑Sanchez said. 

Still, she said the incident tarnished what should have been a joyous celebration.

“I imagine that what this does is derail this entire idea that you can be an active participant in your own restorative growth,” she said.