United States | A rocky start

The clean-up after the LA fires is already revealing tensions

When a city burns, how does recovery even begin?

An Environmental Protection Agency contractor puts on a respirator during Phase 1 of debris removal in LA.
Before helping othersPhotograph: Getty Images
|Altadena

A hazmat team, on their hands and knees, sifts through piles of ash slowly, methodically. They poke and prod mounds of debris with a shovel. They were tasked by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to examine what is left of Altadena, a neighbourhood destroyed by the fires that razed parts of Los Angeles County last month. The crew wears jumpsuits and gas masks while they look for pesticides, paint cans and propane tanks—anything toxic or prone to explode. They avoid walking near chimneys, which are often the only things left standing on incinerated lots. They could topple over at any minute. To the north, the charred mountains loom.

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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “After the flames”

From the February 8th 2025 edition

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