The government is clearing fire debris from thousands of plots. Here’s what it looks like

The corner of Thurin Avenue and West Loma Alta Drive in Altadena offers a snapshot of recovery, three months after the Eaton Fire.

The burnt out cars, mountains of ash and all those chimneys have to go somewhere before rebuilding can begin. And on a recent weekday morning, crews contracted with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were on this block cleaning out plots.

One group of workers in hard hats and blue protective gear sifted through a husk of a home, shuffling in the space between two chimneys looking for asbestos to remove. Across the street, a group in tyvek suits and respirators removed piles of waste from the shell of yet another home lost to the fire.

And next door to that, an example of where each of the thousand plots destroyed in the fire will eventually end up: a mostly clear lot, with a gate and patio still standing around it. The ground had been sprayed down with a green substance called hydromulch and surrounded with straw bags to prevent flooding. In what once was the home's back garden, sprigs of plants now grow.

On any given day, around 215 crews do this work across the burn zones of the Palisades and Eaton fires, according to the Army Corps, which runs the government’s fire debris clearing program.

It's a massive job. The L.A. fires that killed 30 people in January also destroyed more than 16,000 buildings, and most of them are eligible for government cleanup. The Army Corps and L.A. County estimate that up to 4.5 million tons of debris needs to be removed in this phase of recovery. They say that's going to take up to 150,000 dump trucks.

Cleared lots and those awaiting cleanup dot the Altadena landscape three months after the Eaton Fire.

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Army Corps Col. Eric Swenson said the government had contracted with about 3,000 workers to get the job done — and that doesn't count the truck drivers transporting waste and materials from each site.

Homeowners have until April 15 to join the government program or opt out. As of the latest count, crews directed by the Army Corps have completed cleanup at nearly 1,700 plots.

Swenson, who leads the operation, told LAist that he estimates the government cleanup will be complete by the end of the summer, well ahead of a January 2026 deadline. He joined LAist in the burn zone to demonstrate the government's debris removal process.

 "We have gone much faster than we had originally expected," Swenson told LAist in Altadena on Monday.

How does ‘opting in’ to the government program work?

To opt in to the federal program, residents need to fill out a "Right of Entry" form by April 15 allowing the federal government to do the work on their property.

That form includes questions about ownership, insurance, and cars and structures on the property. It also gives the homeowner the option to remove or keep the home's foundation. It is processed by L.A. County before it's handed to the Army Corps.

The cleanup is done in two phases. In the first phase, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency surveyed and removed hazardous materials like batteries and fertilizers from burned lots. That work was completed in late February. The debris clearing program is Phase 2, when the Army Corps takes over.

Step one: Getting rid of asbestos

Once a "right of entry form" is handed to the Army Corps, they can begin their work. That process starts with an assessment of the site for hazards like asbestos.

Swenson said that first, the crew takes samples of the remains of a home and sends it to a lab to be tested for asbestos. If asbestos is found, a team is sent to remove the asbestos first. On Monday at one plot on Thurin Avenue and West Loma Alta Drive, workers were sifting through the remains of a home by hand to remove asbestos.

Workers search for hazards such as asbestos as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers works to clear a property in Altadena.

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" It's a labor intensive, hands-on process," said Swenson, who added that this part can take one to three days.

Swenson said crews then take the material with asbestos, place it in bags and put those bags in a dump truck. According to Cory Koger, a debris expert with the Army Corps, materials with asbestos are eventually taken to Azusa Land Reclamation. First, he said, those materials are taken to staging areas so they can be more efficiently packaged. Those waystations are the Altadena Golf Course for the Eaton Fire and along Temescal Canyon Road for the Palisades Fire.

Step two: Ash and fire debris removal

Once asbestos has been cleared, Swenson said, a crew will begin removing the remains of the fire from a plot. This includes removing ash, burned remains of the home, and six inches of topsoil. It also entails demolishing structures — like remaining walls and chimneys. The contractors are not removing pools, patios and driveways from properties, but they are removing vehicles.

Crews wear respirators and protective suits as they remove dangerous materials. At one site, a worker manned an excavator, separating ash and debris from metal before lifting and dropping debris into a waiting dump truck.

Crews in Altadena work on April 7, 2025 to remove debris from a property as a result of the Eaton Fire,.

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As the fire debris was being disturbed and lifted, another worker hosed the area down with water.

" We use what we call the wet method," Swenson said. "So every parcel is sprayed down with water before we start, as we're doing debris removal, and then that fire ash and debris is kept in a wet state ... so that when it gets to the landfill, it's still essentially moist. So [there] won't be any fugitive dust escaping, because we're trying to keep all the dust on the ground."

Ash and fire debris is a concern because of the harmful substances it can contain from all the materials that burned in the fires. This has been a concern not only for people whose homes were lost but also for neighboring areas that were not affected by the fires, and for the communities close to the landfills where the debris is being taken.

Col. Eric Swenson is leading the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleanup of burned properties.

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Swenson said that the ash and debris is deposited into dump trucks with plastic liners that get filled, closed and covered with tarp before those trucks deliver the fire waste to landfills. Three dump trucks came to one land parcel on Monday in the span of about an hour.

Swenson estimated each land parcel could require 15 to 20 dump trucks to remove all the materials, and said the Army Corps contracts with truck operators in and around Los Angeles for this part of the process. The Army Corps said it is sending the ash and debris waste to three landfills — Calabasas, Sunshine Canyon, and Simi Valley Landfill.

Step three: Removing metals, concrete and the home's foundation

A crew member hosed down the entire area, not discriminating between types of material. The worker navigating the excavator was the one who separated ash and debris from metal refuse.

Swenson said that after the ash and debris is removed, the crew puts metal and concrete into a separate truck to be recycled. He said they take the concrete foundation out last. These materials are then taken to a staging area to be processed before going to a recycling center.

After it's loaded into trucks, debris is covered to prevent it from escaping during transit.

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For the Eaton Fire, that staging area is the Altadena Golf Course, where clean concrete, vegetation and metals get crushed so they're easier to transport. This move has drawn criticism and concern from residents in the area worried about health implications and traffic. Swenson said it was necessary to keep the debris removal process quick.

 "The limiting factor out here is trucks," Swenson said. “And if you've lived in L.A. for a day, you know that traffic here is challenging. So by having a temporary debris reduction area within the impacted area, I'm able to short-haul a truck containing clean metals, clean concrete and vegetative debris from this parcel here, say four miles to the golf course where it can be dropped off. ...  I'm able to turn trucks faster, which makes this process go faster."

A sign at an Altadena property showing that it was cleared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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Step four: Removing final signs of fire damage

Once all that material is removed, the team contracted by the Army Corps removes hazardous trees from each land parcel. Then, the crew sprays hydromulch onto the property — a bright green mixture of fiber and other materials meant to prevent erosion. Finally, they'll line the property with straw wattles — tubes of straw — to prevent erosion.

Once all of that is complete, Swenson said the Army Corps does a final inspection before returning a completed right of entry form to the county.

I've opted in. How do I know when it's my turn?

Once your right of entry form has been accepted by the county and passed to the Army Corps, you're in line. The Army Corps says it will call property owners 72 hours before their debris clearing is set to begin. You can be at the site for this process.

Swenson said that at first, crews were having to move around neighborhoods rather than going house by house, because land parcels were at different stages in the process. But he said that as right of entry forms get cleared and asbestos abatement gets finished, he'll be able to more efficiently line up homes for cleanup.

" It is our goal to get these properties cleared as quickly and safely as possible so that these homeowners have an opportunity to rebuild as quickly as possible," he said.

Once debris removal is complete, homeowners can begin the next part of the lengthy process of recovery: getting a building permit.