Federal crews are tasked with cleaning up a large number of electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries left behind in the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires.
This month’s deadly and destructive Los Angeles fires that claimed 28 lives burned with such intensity that electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries melted to the ground, creating hazardous conditions as residents began returning to their communities Jan. 28.
Specialists with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were leading the large-scale cleanup of the batteries Tuesday.
The Palisades Fire burned more than 36 square miles and tore through neighborhoods full of electric vehicles and solar panels after years of state-sponsored green-energy policies.
The size of the Palisades fire and number of lithium-ion batteries left behind make it one of the largest hazardous-materials cleanups that local first responders have seen, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Adam VanGerpen.
“We’ve never seen it on this scale,” VanGerpen told The Epoch Times. “We are talking a very large scale.”
Lithium-ion batteries are used in cellphones, tablets, laptops, wireless headphones, electric cars, and solar panel storage.
Many of the batteries and electric vehicles melted after they were abandoned by fleeing residents starting Jan. 7, VanGerpen said.
“We have to remove the entire vehicle,” he added.
Actor and Pacific Palisades homeowner James Woods said in a post on social media platform X Monday that the melted electric cars were “creating a real problem for safe debris removal.”
“While I am grateful to have President Trump in charge of the federal assistance so desperately needed, we can’t ignore that the electric cars have literally melted into the earth where they stood,” Woods wrote.
LAFD hazmat crews have surveyed the fire zone, searching through 6,837 destroyed homes and buildings, and 12,317 others that were damaged, according to numbers issued Tuesday by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
The teams used software to locate and flag the zone’s lithium-ion batteries, according to VanGerpen.
Some batteries appear intact and untouched but could still produce toxic gases, reignite, or explode, making them the first priority for cleanup crews, he said.
