For those residents who have homes standing, but do not feel they have been properly remediated or are worried about moving back, there will be a special Q & A with the New York Times reporters, Rukmini Callimachi and Blacki Migliozzi at 6 p.m. on Monday January 5.
Callimachi and Migloiozzi wrote a December 29 story “How Did This Family End Up Back in a Toxic House.” To read the story click here.
It will come as no surprise to people dealing with insurance that “Evidence showing that the remediation approved by insurers is inadequate is mounting: Data from 45 homes tested after professional cleaning showed that 43 of them still tested positive for unsafe levels of lead, according to Eaton Fire Residents United, a coalition of concerned residents.”
The NY Times story starts “Jeff Van Ness is constantly cleaning.
“Every day, he vacuums, mops and wipes every surface in his house, which stands on one of the blocks in Altadena, Calif., that survived the flames of the Los Angeles wildfires, but not the smoke.
“He works in deliberate lines across the kitchen tile, then along the baseboards, then into the corners where the smoke pooled nearly a year ago — following a map only he can see.
“It’s the only way to quiet his thoughts: Is it safe for his children, 6-year-old Sylvia and 9-year-old Milo, to walk barefoot on the kitchen tiles? Should he wash the toys they drop on the floor with bleach, or with soap and water? The darkest thoughts are about his wife, Cathlene Pineda, 41, a jazz pianist who is on medication for cancer. If the toxins were in the house, he wonders, could they bring the cancer back?
The family reluctantly returned home in August, eight months after the Los Angeles fires and two months after a consultant they hired found lead — a dangerous neurotoxin — inside the house. After their insurer, Farmers Insurance, dismissed those findings and cut off payments for their hotel, the Van Nesses had little choice but to return and do the only thing they could: clean.
“‘We don’t have the means to pay our mortgage and live somewhere else,’ said Mr. Van Ness, 44, a waiter at a five-star hotel. ‘It’s a feeling of helplessness that is indescribable.’”
This Q & A presentation is organized by Surviving Structures – EF Recovery and Palisades Standing Homes. The webinar will not be recorded or shared afterwards.
The Zoom registration link is https://tinyurl.com/2mhec63d.
Respectfully, the family they highlighted live in Altadena not Pacific Palisades.
Furthermore, metals do not multiple like a virus, once a house is cleared, etc…
Any new testing that might come back positive probably was there BEFORE the fire.
Buried deep within the house just like before the fire.
Finally, We have had several rain storms too since the fire.
I know The NY Times has to sell newspapers but scaring people is not appropriate