BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. — Eight months after the Camp Fire swept through Butte County, the cleanup of more than one million tons of debris and ash continues.
On Friday California’s Consolidated Debris Removal Operations Center (DROC) released the most recent cleanup totals. To date, 7,575 properties have been cleared of “qualified ash and debris — with more than 2.4 million tons removed throughout Butte County,” the DROC said. Below are the totals shared by the center.
DEBRIS TONNAGE TOTALS (JULY 16, 2019): 2,425,101 total tons
- 33,972 tons of metals delivered/recycled
- 1,526,415 tons of debris, ash and soil disposed
- 467,867 tons of concrete delivered/recycled
- 396,847 tons of contaminated soil
- 0 tons of vegetative material
More than 80 people were killed when California’s deadliest wildfire swept through Butte County, and thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed. The fire burned in the parched Sierra Nevada foothills for two weeks, quickly spreading across 240 square miles before it was fully contained.
In the eight months that have passed since, a Pacific Gas & Electric company power line has been deemed the cause of the fire. Since this isn’t the first time PG&E has been to blame, the ABC10 Originals team began work on a series titled “FIRE - POWER - MONEY.”
In the series, Reporter Brandon Rittiman breaks down how the state got to the point of “megafires” and how power and money have allowed PG&E to continue to influence state politics and charge customers for problems the company should have addressed sooner.
Read more here.
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INDIVIDUAL PROPERTIES: The DROC Survivor Support Unit (SSU) is now able to provide a tentative timeframe, starting within a projected month for debris removal on individual properties, to survivors participating in the State program. This information is available to individual property owners upon request or by contacting the DROC.
Survivors can find more information here.
PARADISE IRRIGATION DISTRICT PLAN: Last week, Paradise Irrigation District [PID] officials and contracting partners held their third community meeting to update survivors and the local community on their draft water system recovery plan. Details of the plan, as well as additional information about the system’s recovery progress, can be found here.
FEMA AND OTHER SUPPORT: FEMA has approved more than $86 million in financial aid to over 8,000 owners and renters who qualified for assistance. The U.S. Small Business Administration has also approved more than $419 million in loans to businesses, private nonprofit organizations, homeowners and renters recovering from the Camp, Woolsey and Hill fires.
In addition, FEMA is supporting more than 300 households with manufactured or temporary housing units [MHU/THU] using commercial site locations in Butte, Glenn, Lake, Sacramento, Shasta, Sutter, Tehama and Yuba Counties.
The Transitional Shelter Assistance (TSA) program has assisted more than 637 households since the disaster. For more information relating to the temporary sites, visit the Butte County Recovery website. Learn more, here. .
UPDATES: Stay updated on recovery progress across California through the CalOES website, here.