On Highland Drive, in the foothills above Camarillo, an excavator is in the middle of a grim job. It’s dumping bucketloads of debris from the remains of what was a three story home into a truck.
Stu Hoffman is watching the work closely. This wasn’t his home. But, he also lost his house in the November Mountain Fire. It was just down the street.
"It just happened so fast. We had I'd say seven to eight minutes to evacuate. We got the dog, and what little belongings we thought were valuable at the time, and we headed out," said Hoffman. "Later on, I climbed a hill on the east side of the property, across the barranca, and watched the place go up."
Hoffman says he and his wife decided to rebuild. They're anxious to get started.
That process starts with debris removal. But, it’s not as simple as using a bulldozer and a dump truck. The debris can be dangerous.
"All of your household appliances, lights, furnaces, a lot of plastics, a lot of heavy metals, all get reduced into the ash piles," said Sean Debley, who is Technical Services Manager for Ventura County’s Environmental Health Division. "We take special care in handling that material so that we clean up the debris site from the house that was destroyed, but also that we're not contaminating the surrounding community."
He said property owners have two choices on how to get debris removed.
"They can either hire a private contractor and coordinate the debris removal on the ground on their own, or they cay enter into the county-led program where the county has secured the environmental consultant that does the preliminary work, and then does the soil sampling, and confirmation sampling on the back end," said Debley. "We also hire the debris removal contractor to handle al the fire debris and ash, the scrap metal, and then the concrete foundations."
Debley said there are no upfront costs for homeowners taking part in the county-led program. About 370 structures were destroyed by the Mountain Fire, including more than 180 homes.
"We have about 130 homes that are in the county-led program, we have approximately 20 that have been approved in the private cleanup, and there are some people who have not yet responded (on their cleanup plans)," said Debley. "Our objective here is to get the majority of the sites cleared by the end of March."
There are two phases to the cleanup. Phase One is complete. "We had the assistance of the Department of Toxic Substance Control (a state agency), so they went out with our HAZMAT crews, and did an initial survey, and removed any household hazardous wastes like compressed gas cylinders, and any other toxic stuff that can be removed even before we can get here, to get it out of the environment immediately," said Debley.
Debley said it's Phase Two that's just getting underway. "First thing they are going to do is to remove the scrap metal that can be recovered, and sent to a recycling facility. And then they'll handle debris and ash. That operation can take one to two days. After that, they'll be removing the foundation, and that can take one to two days. If you average it, each site takes three to four days. But, small ones sometimes get completed in one day."
Again, the county run program’s goal is to get the debris removed by the end of March. They’re gearing up now, and hope to have a dozen teams working on the removal process. It could be April or May before property owners get use of the property back, because testing needs to take place for residual contamination.
Debley talked about what happens to the debris after it’s removed. "The objective is to get the asbestos out," said Debley. "That material goes to a hazardous waste disposal facility." The fire debris and ash goes to one of two local landfills that are certified for disposal of those types of materials.
One of the crews could start work at the site of Hoffman’s Highland Drive home later this week. His homesite is third on the county’s list for debris removal.
"We're going to go with the basic footprint (of their house) that we had before, with just minor changes. We had a pretty cool house. We want to reconstruct that. We're counting on two and a half to three years for completion," said Hoffman.
Debley said the county has become efficient at wildfire debris removal. Unfortunately, it's had lots of practice. The county has had three major wildfires in the county in less than a decade.
"Understanding the coordination with the state, and getting the appropriate resources out there, we're good at this, sad to say," said Debley.
