Los Angeles | Houses infested with toxic substances, months after fires

(Altadena) Nine months after the fires of Los Angeles, Karen Girard still cannot rejuvenate at home. The smoke impregnated the walls, the parquet and the furniture of a toxic cocktail which forces her to wear a mask each time she enters it.

His house is infested with heavy metals, in particular lead, arsenic or zinc, and toxic volatile substances, sometimes carcinogenic, like cyanide and furfural.

When the flames shaved the neighboring pavilions, but spared his property, M^me Girard first believed lucky.

“I was so happy, I told myself that I should go and buy lottery tickets,” said AFP this resident of the suburbs of Altadena.

But it has gradually disillusioned over the analyzes.

“I realized that even if the house is still there, I risk losing it,” sobbed the 58 -year -old designer.

Asthmatic, she undergoes violent crises every time she stays too long on the spot. To the point that his doctor changed his treatment.

With 31 dead and more than 16,000 buildings destroyed, Los Angeles fires surprised by their magnitude, ravaging the city of Altadena and the posh district of Pacific Palisades.

Invisible disaster

But at the heart of the flames rushed another disaster, invisible: that of pollution caused by the combustion of so many constructions, cars, televisions and other plastic objects.

Pushed by gusts reaching 160 km/h, toxic smoke has infiltrated the doors and through the ventilation mouths.

“The potential toxicity of the mixture cleared by these fires is probably much more important than that of the other major fires that we have known in the United States because they have not touched as many urban structures,” explains Michael Jerrett, professor of environmental sciences at UCLA University.

In the spring, his team tested the atmosphere of burnt down communities and found hexavalent chrome, a carcinogenic shape of chrome, at levels justifying “increased vigilance” of the authorities.

These nanoparticles were able to be transported up to 10 kilometers from the disaster areas, potentially affecting tens of thousands of people, according to him.

“They are so small that they can enter the interiors with great efficiency,” he warns. “It is really important that the inhabitants who want to return to their homes make them clean up properly. »»

But the assumption by the insurance of this prohibitive procedure is extremely complicated.

M^me Girard is thus stuck in an interminable battle of experts.

The hygienist she hired recommends replacing all her furniture and objects, treating the frame of her house and destroying the walls to rebuild them.

But that mandated by its insurance ensures that a simple vacuum cleaner equipped with an air filter capturing the fine particles would be enough to make the place habitable.

Insurance pointed out

“How is it possible?” Asked the Californian, suspecting her assurance of neglecting her health.

“For them, it’s a question of money, but not for me. It’s my house. It is a place where I have lived for several decades and where I want to come back to return, ”she regrets.

“There are no clear standards, insurance companies can refuse what they want,” said Jane Lawton, founder of the Eaton Fire Residents Association.

Its organization has mapped more than 200 tests carried out on Habitations de Altadena. All show various degrees of contamination.

“It’s going to be like September 11”, dreads M^me Lawton. She recalls that after the attack in New York in 2001, the extensive neighborhood of the World Trade Center suffered from chronic respiratory diseases and a high rate of cancer.

Aware of the problem, California launched in May a working group in order to impose clear rules on the insurance to compensate the damage caused by smoke.

The first state insurer, State Farm stresses that it “paid more than $ 4.5 billion” to the victims of the fires in January, and “assesses each compensation request, including those related to smoke, on a case -by -case basis”.

But for Priscilla Muñoz, a client at home, the insurer is lying down.

This resident of Pasadena residing 1.5 kilometers from the victim -based zone fought for long weeks to obtain compensation in order to be accommodated elsewhere.

The analysis of her house, which she paid $ 10,000 in her pocket, notably reveals lead. The forties still does not know if the insurance will finance decontamination and gets ink blood for its two children.

“Lead (…) It infiltrates business,” she fears. “I don’t want them to snuggle against toxic stuffed animals. »»