Feds declare Eaton fire was a cleanup success. Their testing shows otherwise

Despite finding nearly one in five homes had excessive levels of lead, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week claimed that recent soil testing in Altadena proved that expedited federal cleanup efforts had effectively removed toxic ash and debris from homes destroyed by the deadly Eaton fire.

Earlier this year, the EPA announced it would perform a limited soil sampling at 100 destroyed homes across the burn zone in order to verify that contractors had thoroughly mitigated toxic substances. In a recent news release, the EPA said that testing revealed median lead concentrations below federal standards, and “confirmed that cleanup methods successfully addressed contamination and verified cleanup protocols.”

The EPA soil sampling comes amid mounting pressure from residents and environmentalists who claim that a hasty federal cleanup effort had left behind or spread hazardous fire debris. Internal government reports also raised questions about the thoroughness of the cleanup.

The EPA did not release its report to the public, but it said 95 of 100 soil samples collected near the surface of the home’s building footprint were below the federal lead screening level.

“I think for the folks in Altadena who maybe had some concerns about the adequacy of the work that was performed by the federal government in removing ash and debris — I think they should feel confident that those areas of their property are safe to use now,” said Mike Montgomery, EPA Superfund and emergency management director.

In announcing its findings, the EPA cited federal lead standards only, and not California’s more stringent thresholds. Of the 100 homes sampled, 17 had lead levels above 80 milligrams per kilogram, California’s benchmark for residential properties. The highest concentration of lead was 705 milligrams per kilogram — nearly nine times higher than the state standard and triple the federal threshold, according to a copy of the report that was reviewed by The Times.

The results unnerved some Altadena residents, who see more and more fire-destroyed homes being rebuilt. Joy Chen, executive director of Eaton Fire Survivors Network, called on federal officials to release the full report and provide additional resources to address elevated contamination.

“From the beginning, people have been very worried that they [federal workers] did not thoroughly clear these sites. Now 16 months later, people are taking it upon themselves to test or bioremediate to ensure it’s safe to rebuild. Most of us don’t have the resources to make those decisions,” Chen said.

“It would’ve been much easier if homes had been cleared to safe levels the first time around.”

EPA officials said the agency had notified Altadena property owners of their soil test results and encouraged them to review local public health guidance. Montgomery said EPA officials would proactively reach out to property owners whose lots had lead levels above the federal benchmark of 200 milligrams per kilogram.

Federal disaster officials say that some toxic substances within the burn zone could have been deposited there long before the fire — the result perhaps of decades of burning leaded gasoline or lead paint.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had refused repeatedly to pay for post-cleanup soil testing and broke from long-standing California fire recovery protocols that are intended to protect returning residents from toxic substances. FEMA, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA, had touted the fire recovery as the fastest in modern history.

Disaster crews removed millions of tons of fire debris from nearly 9,700 properties affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires in roughly eight months.

But hundreds of disaster victims had complained about substandard work from federal cleanup workers, and internal government reports said crews had left debris behind and, in at least one instance, dumped ash on a neighbor’s property.

In January — shortly after the one-year anniversary of the fires — the EPA announced that it would perform soil testing for lead at 100 randomly-selected homes that were destroyed in the Eaton fire and later cleared of debris by federal contractors. The announcement followed months of criticism that federal cleanup workers had mishandled debris — including dumping fire debris and contaminated pool water on neighboring properties.

The Los Angeles Times collected soil samples in March 2025 and published the first evidence that already-remediated home sites retained elevated levels of toxic substances. Los Angeles County, UCLA, USC and several other organizations launched their own soil testing efforts, and all found elevated levels of lead at homes that had already been remediated by federal cleanup crews.

Lead is a potent neurotoxin that can stunt the brain development and lead to behavioral issues in young children that inhale or ingest it. When the Eaton fire burned through Altadena’s historic neighborhoods, it destroyed many homes that were coated in toxic lead paint. Plumes of smoke and ash then deposited the heavy metal across the burn zone.

Dr. Nichole Quick, chief medical advisor for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, encouraged property owners to seek further testing if they have concerns about contamination, including free testing services provided by local universities.

Quick said residents can take steps to limit their exposure, such as washing dusty equipment and keeping cleaning floors and other surfaces clean.

“Guidance is really geared towards how you interrupt that ingestion exposure, so we’re talking about a high-risk group, our kids with developing brains, pregnant women,” Quick said. “Kids also happen to be the ones that crawl around on all sorts of stuff and hands directly into mouth, so a lot of what we’re talking about is stopping that sort of exposure.”

Environmental experts quickly questioned the EPA’s soil sampling approach, which drastically differed from soil testing procedures from California environmental agencies. Andrew Whelton, a Purdue University researcher who has studied environmental risk following disaster, said the EPA sampling — which only tested one mixed sample — would likely mask heavily polluted areas of the home. The agency also only tested for lead — one of 17 toxic metals typically tested for following wildfires.

“It’s apples and oranges,” Whelton said. “They [the EPA] only looked for lead and didn’t look for hot spots. The approach that EPA differs from everything that California has done for fire cleanup for the last 15 years.

“My advice to property owners who haven’t tested soil or are adjacent to the fire area is conduct soil testing as it has always been done.”

The EPA and L.A. County health department are expected to discuss the soil testing results at the Altadena town council meeting on June 16.