As of the one-year anniversary of the disaster, city and county data show that only 10 homes have been fully rebuilt.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin will oversee efforts to rebuild California homes destroyed by last year’s devastating wildfires, President Donald Trump said.
The Jan. 28 announcement came a day after Trump signed an executive order to expedite home reconstruction in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, the two Los Angeles communities most severely affected by the fires.
The order also directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration to issue regulations that preempt certain state and local rules in order to expedite rebuilding.
Speaking at a Treasury Department summit on the new “Trump accounts” initiative, the president said Zeldin will make sure the order is followed through.
“I haven’t told this to Lee Zeldin yet, but I’m going to put you in charge of getting permits,” the president said.
“I think we’re going to override to local authorities because they’re never going to, they’re never going to have it.
“And when I was told that there’s a provision where you can override the local authority to get things done … because it’s really to me, it’s a national emergency. What they’ve done to these people is horrible.”
The Palisades and Eaton fires exploded at opposite ends of Los Angeles County within hours of each other on Jan. 7, 2025. The inferno lasted more than three weeks, killing 31 people and destroying about 13,000 homes.
The rebuilding has proven slow. As of the one-year anniversary of the disaster, city and county data show that only 10 homes have been fully rebuilt, while hundreds more remain under construction across the region.
Also on Jan. 28, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing examining the fires and their aftermath.
Democratic members pressed for additional FEMA funds to support recovery, while Republicans questioned whether it was appropriate to send more federal dollars with the same local leadership being in power.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, urged Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to join him in asking the Trump administration to authorize an additional $34 billion in FEMA aid.
Johnson, however, said that California’s needs were driven by “utter incompetence and failure” by Los Angeles and state officials, and that it would be unfair to ask taxpayers nationwide to cover the cost of what he called an “entirely preventable” disaster.
By Bill Pan
