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Chapter 1: What challenges do homeowners face after surviving a wildfire?
The night and day mare for some people whose houses did not burn to the ground in California a year ago. I'm David Brancaccio in Pasadena, California. One year after the urban firestorms here, we're focusing on a single block in Altadena. I lost my house on that street, but some days I worry it's even more complicated for my neighbors who had houses that remained standing in the smoke and soot.
But literally, I mean, these embers are like snowflakes. They're falling all around us.
I can barely face this, so I'll let CNN's Anderson Cooper do the narration.
Inside that smoke is another house.
When I first saw this in real time a year ago, I could make out in the chaos that Anderson was a half block from our place.
It is sandwiched between two houses completely ablaze. There's no way that house is going to survive.
But some did survive. On my single block, 15 houses burned up, but 10 are still there, potentially habitable, but not before knowing what and how to clean.
It feels like I have a second full-time job that I'm not being paid for and I did not ask for. And I don't have the background, you know, me with a standing home.
And that's saying something, because this neighbor's day job is a manager of a public health project. Ellen is also our energetic block captain, sharing info, bringing us together to eat and to commiserate.
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Chapter 2: How do smoke and soot impact homes that survived the fire?
Some neighbors asked for first names only here so they could speak more freely with insurance and other financial matters in flux.
The things that I need to understand are, you know, around toxic contaminations and remediation and restoration. And I don't have a chemistry background.
Reading scientific papers, attending webinar after webinar.
I don't want to go home and worry that I'm going to end up with cancer or respiratory illness. But I ache in my heart to go home.
When we caught up in late fall, she was waiting for results from an industrial hygienist.
We know what we have tested positive for, which includes, oh my gosh, I couldn't even tell you all the things, asbestos, lead, beryllium, cyanide.
Lead, asbestos, cadmium. Ellen's husband, Eric, is a senior engineer for NASA. Chromium, manganese, lithium. I may be missing a heavy metal in there somewhere. Who's paid for the testing that you've done so far?
Oh, we have. We've paid out of pocket.
Our insurance company... She says the insurance people told her no testing was necessary before professional cleaning because the soot's visible and you'll know if it's clean by eyeballing it. The problem with that argument is that... This smoke wasn't from natural trees and brush. This smoke contains a suburb with all of its stuff and its junk.
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Chapter 3: What is the process for cleaning and remediating smoke damage?
Do you have to throw it out?
New couches, new carpets, new mattresses, new bedding.
Terica, a child support officer for L.A. County, got back in August, seven months after the fire. Terica's retired mom, Mary, lives with her husband, Nate, next door in a separate house that also made it through standing. The mom also ponied up the cash for decontamination. Some insurance money was promised, but since she had a loan, the bank controls the payout.
We got the money, but it went to the mortgage company, and then he's got to send in his information so we can get the money.
It's exactly as the day we left it.
Rebecca and Chris have a standing house facing Terica and Mary.
We were about to have some pizza that night before we left, and we left our plates.
Even the hot honey is still there.
If you were to pick it up, you would just see a circle of white inside and then soot all around it. It's a mess. It smells terrible. I know it's contaminated. I'm scared to go in without a mask on.
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Chapter 4: What toxic contaminants might be present after a fire?
This could have bipartisan support, depending on how it's crafted. Expect more during Trump's appearance set for the World Economic Forum in Switzerland later this month. Markets Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq futures are all down in the two to three-tenths of a percent range, the 10-year interest rate up 4.16%. In Pasadena, California, I'm David Brancaccio. It's the Marketplace Morning Report.
You're from APM, American Public Media.
Hey, everyone. You already listened to Marketplace Podcast, so you know that it's important to understand how economic forces shape our lives. And that feels especially important now as we're all trying to make sense of the latest headlines.
I'm Rima Kareis, host of Marketplace's This is Uncomfortable, a show that explores how money bumps up against our relationships, our choices, and the parts of life we don't always say aloud. And starting January 15th, we are back every single week. New stories, new questions, and the kind of conversations that make you feel less alone in this quickly changing economy.
We're tackling questions like, should I turn my hobby into a money-making side hustle? How do I deal with layoff anxiety? Or what do we owe our parents financially? Don't miss an episode. Subscribe to This Is Uncomfortable from Marketplace, wherever you get your podcasts.
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