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Yesterday โ€” 25 January 2025NPR Topics: Environment

Their home survived the fires, but there's still danger everywhere

24 January 2025 at 23:23
A home destroyed by the Eaton Fire (R) is seen next to another left intact in Altadena, California.

As evacuation orders are lifted, people in Los Angeles are returning to their homes--if their homes survived. But the disaster doesn't end when the fire stops.

A single block and a half separates the Altadena home of Jennifer and Ed Barguiarena from complete destruction. Just down the street lies charred, flattened debris.

But for families like the Barguiarenas โ€” the seemingly lucky ones, whose houses survived โ€” an altogether different ordeal is just beginning.

The water still isn't safe to drink, cook or wash with. There are fine layers of ash and dust in people's homes and yards. And families like the Barguiarenas are also worried about what they can't see โ€“ the possibility that toxins like lead and asbestos might have drifted into their homes.

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(Image credit: ZOE MEYERS)

Before yesterdayNPR Topics: Environment

'The birds are back.' Resilience in the ruins of the Palisades fire

17 January 2025 at 23:35
A car burned from the Palisades Fire is seen at Will Rogers State Park, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on January 15, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

Will Rogers State Historic Park is a vast stretch of natural space in the Santa Monica Mountains. It's a treasure to Angelenos. People get married there, picnic there, and have kids' birthday parties on the great lawn.

The park's namesake, Will Rogers, was a vaudeville performer, radio and movie star, and was known as America's "cowboy philosopher."

His nearly century-old ranch house is the park's centerpiece. It's survived a near miss with wildfire before. Last week, as firestorm engulfed large parts of Los Angeles, this piece of American history was reduced to rubble.

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(Image credit: Apu Gomes)

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