Residents affected by Eaton Fire create coalition to ensure transparent public health recovery
A grassroots effort out of Altadena has residents working together to make sure the homes that are still standing are safe for their families to move back into.
With the San Gabriel mountains behind their property, Grace Regullano and her family have not been able to return to their Pasadena home since evacuating during the Eaton Fire.
"Many of us have insurance but are being forced back home even though we know it's unsafe," Regullano said.
Regullano only comes back to her house to water her plants, a simple task made difficult as she suffers with asthma.
"Every time I come home to water the plants, I am coughing for a week," she said.
The hidden dangers upon return loom over her and her neighbors.
"We have largely been abandoned by our local officials, our state and our federal government and our insurance companies and we have had to figure out how to stay safe for ourselves and for our families," she said.
To get their own answers, a group of residents in Altadena and Pasadena are working together as the "Eaton Fire Residents United" to compile a community-generated contamination map compiling professional testing results completed at homes in these neighborhoods impacted by the Eaton Fire.
"The houses that burned about 300 yards away from me are all pretty old homes," Regullano said. "You are looking at a lot of lead, asbestos, a lot of titanium, possibly mercury, the lithium from electric car batteries."
Professional home testing is not covered by insurance, and it can cost thousands of dollars per household. So far, more than 50 houses have shared their results.
Regullano has been unable to make an appointment with a testing company due to a backlog in requests, so she is relying on the map created by the Eaton Fire Residents United, to make a decision for her family.
"There are ways to measure it. It shouldn't be up to scrappy residents trying to make this happen, she said. "This is something the government should be doing, that the insurance companies should be doing and this is something we are trying to advocate for with this map."
A few blocks away in Altadena, Nicole Maccalla had her house tested and her results are part of the shared map.
"What is really striking on this map, there are some homes that are a good mile from the burn line and they are testing positive for every heavy metal on this list," Maccalla said.
From her results, she is taking certain remediation efforts to clean her house before she and her kids move back in.
All professional test submissions from residents with standing homes so far have shown elevated lead levels and wildfire debris and nearly all homes tested were recommended for professional remediation.
"The conversation that is also missing is structures intact and those that are still here and want to return home," Maccalla said. "It was a void that needed to be filled, I think it's ridiculous that citizens are needing to do this, but we need the information, and we need the information now."
Residents in the area are encouraged to submit their professional test results to be shared anonymously on this public resource. It's information homeowners like Regullano are desperate to get, as her family and so many others are left in the dark.
"There are invisible toxins. The insurance companies and politicians think just because it is invisible, they can get away with making us come home even though it is not safe," Regullano said. "That is going to have lasting repercussions for me, for my kids, for the families in these neighborhoods and that is not okay."
