The Los Angeles Unified Faculty District launched a litany of take a look at outcomes for the fire-damaged Palisades Constitution Excessive Faculty forward of the deliberate return of scholars subsequent week, displaying the district’s remediation efforts have eliminated a lot of the post-fire contamination.
Nonetheless, some mother and father stay involved with a perceived rush to repopulate the campus. And whereas consultants recommended the efforts as some of the complete post-fire college remediations in trendy historical past, they warned the district failed to check for a key household of air contaminants that may enhance most cancers threat and trigger sickness.
“I believe they jumped the gun,” mentioned a mother or father of 1 Pali Excessive sophomore, who requested to not be named as a result of she feared backlash for her youngster. “I’m fairly offended, and I’m very scared. My child needs to return. … I don’t wish to give him an excessive amount of info as a result of he has numerous nervousness round all of those modifications.”
Nonetheless, she nonetheless plans to ship her youngster again to high school on Tuesday, as a result of she doesn’t wish to create yet one more disruption to the scholar’s life. “These are children that additionally lived via COVID,” she mentioned.
The 2025 Palisades fireplace destroyed a number of buildings on Pali Excessive’s campus and deposited soot and ash in others. Following the fireplace, the varsity operated nearly for a number of months and, in mid-April of 2025, moved right into a former Sears division retailer in Santa Monica.
In the meantime, on campus, the U.S. Environmental Safety Company and the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers cleared particles from the destroyed buildings, and LAUSD employed licensed environmental remediation and testing firms to revive the still-standing buildings to a secure situation.
LAUSD serves because the constitution college’s landlord and took on post-fire remediation and testing for the varsity. The choice to maneuver again to the campus was in the end as much as the constitution college’s impartial management.
The Los Angeles Division of Water and Energy examined the ingesting water for a slew of contaminants, and environmental consultants examined the soil, HVAC programs, indoor air and surfaces together with flooring, desks and lockers.
They examined for asbestos, poisonous metals comparable to lead and probably hazardous natural compounds typically unleashed via combustion, referred to as risky natural compounds, or VOCs.
“The varsity is able to occupy,” mentioned Carlos Torres, director of LAUSD’s workplace of environmental well being and security. “That is actually essentially the most thorough testing that’s ever been accomplished that I can recall — positively after a fireplace.”
Building staff rebuild the Palisades Constitution Excessive Faculty swimming pool.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Instances)
A handful of soil samples had metallic concentrations barely above typical post-fire cleanup requirements, that are designed to guard at-risk people over a few years of direct publicity to the soil — comparable to via yard work or taking part in sports activities. An evaluation by the environmental consultants discovered the metals didn’t pose a well being threat to college students or workers.
On indoor surfaces, the consultants discovered two areas with lead and one with arsenic, areas they recleaned and retested to ensure these metals have been not current.
The testing for contamination within the air, nonetheless, has grow to be a matter of debate.
Some consultants cautioned that LAUSD’s consultants examined the air for under a handful of principally non-hazardous VOCs which are sometimes used to detect smoke from a wildfire that primarily burned crops. Whereas these checks discovered no contamination, the consultants didn’t take a look at for a extra complete panel of VOCs, together with many hazardous contaminants generally discovered within the smoke of city fires that eat properties, automobiles, paints, detergents and plastics.
Probably the most infamous of the group is benzene, a identified carcinogen.
At a Wednesday webinar for fogeys and college students, LAUSD’s consultants defended the choice, arguing their aim was solely to find out whether or not smoke lingered within the air after remediation, to not full extra open-ended testing of hazardous chemical compounds that will or could not have come from the fireplace.
Andrew Whelton, a Purdue College professor who researches environmental disasters, didn’t discover the reason ample.
“Benzene is understood to be launched from fireplace. It’s identified to be current in air. It’s identified to be launched from ceilings and furnishings and different issues over time, after the fireplace is out,” Whelton mentioned. “So, I don’t perceive why testing for benzene and among the different fire-related chemical compounds was not accomplished.”
For Whelton, it’s consultant of a bigger downside within the burn areas: With no decisive steerage on learn how to remediate indoor areas after wildland-urban fires, totally different consultants are making considerably totally different selections about what to check for.
LAUSD launched the testing outcomes and remediation reviews in prolonged PDFs lower than two weeks earlier than college students plan to return to campus, whereas the constitution college’s management selected a Jan. 27 return date earlier than testing was accomplished.
On the webinar, college officers mentioned two buildings close to the outside pool haven’t but been cleared via environmental testing and can stay closed. 4 water fixtures are additionally awaiting closing clearance from the Los Angeles Division of Water and Energy, and the varsity’s meals companies are nonetheless awaiting certification from the L.A. County Division of Public Well being.
For some mother and father — even those that are desperate to ditch the division retailer campus — it quantities to a flurried rush to repopulate Pali Excessive’s campus that’s straining their selections about learn how to maintain their children secure.
Torres burdened that his workforce acted cautiously within the choice to authorize the varsity for occupancy, and that promising preliminary testing helped college directors plan forward. He additionally famous that the gradual, cautious method was a degree of competition for different mother and father who hoped their college students may return to the campus as shortly as attainable.
Specialists largely praised LAUSD’s efforts as thorough and complete — except for the VOC air testing.
Remediation personnel energy washed the outside of buildings, wiped down all surfaces and accomplished thorough vacuuming with filters to take away harmful substances. Any tender objects comparable to carpet or clothes that would take up and maintain onto contamination have been discarded. The varsity’s labyrinth of ducts and pipes making up the HVAC system was additionally totally cleaned.
Crews examined all through the method to verify their remediation work was profitable and remoted sections of buildings as soon as the work was full. They then accomplished one other full spherical of testing to make sure remoted areas weren’t recontaminated by different work.
Environmental consultants even decided a number of smaller buildings couldn’t be successfully decontaminated and consequently had them demolished.
Torres mentioned LAUSD plans to conduct periodic testing to observe air within the college, and that the district is open to folks’ strategies.
For Whelton, the excellent news is that the varsity may simply full complete VOC testing inside per week, if it needed to.
“They’re very shut at giving the varsity a clear invoice of well being,” he mentioned. “Going again and conducting this thorough VOC testing … can be the final motion that they would wish to take to find out whether or not or not well being dangers stay for the scholars, college and guests.”
