Kamala Harris tours Pacific Palisades, says she wants to be present for the community

PACIFIC PALISADES, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Former Vice President Kamala Harris toured neighborhoods devastated by the Palisades Fire, an area not far from her own home in Brentwood.

“To literally be on the ground here, you can smell the smoke that was here,” she said. “You can feel the toxicity, frankly, of the environment. You can feel the energy of all the folks who are still here on the ground, doing the work of trying to make this area safe and then, at some point, provide a pathway to rebuilding.”

Harris toured the area alongside Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. While in Pacific Palisades, the former VP met with first responders and Los Angeles County Public Works crews.

“She has offered her continued support, and I know that this will give her a new insight into exactly what we’re facing on the ground,” said Horvath.

Harris previously toured the Eaton Fire burn area in Altadena on Jan. 20, after she officially left office and returned to Los Angeles from Washington, D.C.

She also got to meet residents impacted by the fire, like Jaimee Longo.

“We all want it back so badly,” said Longo. “We’re not sure how we’re going to get there, but everybody is very strong. It’s a small community, and we all know each other one way or the other, and we’re just trying to find a way.”

Harris didn’t hesitate to offer her view on climate change, saying it’s not just about responding to a disaster, but building up resources to deal with the inevitability of these catastrophic events and become more resilient.

“We must as a society and a country invest in adaptation and resilience,” she said. “We have to understand these extreme weather occurrences are extreme, but they are increasingly less rare.”

When Harris was asked if she’ll run governor of California, she responded, “I’ve been home for two weeks and three days.”

Meanwhile, recently appointed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin was also in the L.A. area Thursday, touring both the Eaton and Palisades fire burn zones.

He said his agency “has been proudly doing everything in our power” to complete the Phase 1 clearance of hazardous materials from the burn zones, with the agency trying to meet a goal of finishing the work in 30 days.

“We set a 30-day goal. We’re doing everything we can to possibly meet it.”

Once the Phase 1 hazardous materials work is finished on individual properties, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will expand its Phase 2 clearance of fire debris from properties, clearing the way for residents and businesses to begin rebuilding efforts.

The corps officially began Phase 2 work earlier this work, starting with five Pasadena Unified School District campuses destroyed or damaged in the Eaton Fire.

EPA officials said Wednesday there were more than 1,000 people working on the hazardous waste removal effort, but only about 5% of affected properties had been cleared so far.

But the start of Phase 2 work marked a major advancement in the clearance work, which is expected to take at least a year to fully complete.

“Beginning Phase 2 means we’re making tangible progress toward recovery,” Col Eric Swenson, the Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles Wildfires Recovery Field Office commander, said in a statement Tuesday. “Our teams are working with urgency and care to remove hazardous debris while ensuring the safety of the community, workers and the environment.”

Phase 2 involves clearing fire-damaged properties of hazardous ash and debris.

Corps of Engineer officials said the Phase 2 operations will expand in the coming weeks to include residential properties destroyed by the Eaton and Palisades fires.

County officials on Wednesday again urged fire-affected residents to fill out “Right of Entry” forms to either opt in or out of the free Phase 2 debris-clearance program offered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Residents have until March 31 to complete the forms, which are available online at recovery.lacounty.gov/debris-removal/ or at any FEMA Disaster Recovery Center.

Horvath said Wednesday about half of affected residents in the Eaton and Palisades fire areas had filled out the forms to opt in to the clearance program. Residents also have the option of opting out of the program and hiring their own private contractors to perform the work. But that work cannot proceed until the EPA completes its waste-removal program, which is expected to take at least a month.

Status updates on the EPA’s work, including an interactive map of individual fire-affected properties, are available online at epa.gov/ca/2025-california-wildfires.

The cleanup efforts have sparked criticism from some residents concerned about the sites being used to process hazardous materials being removed from destroyed properties by the EPA.

Residents, however, are being allowed to return to their properties, along with contractors and utility workers, as they assess damage and determine how to move forward. A nightly curfew for the burn areas remains in effect from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Checkpoints restricting access to the fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades remain in place. Returning residents and authorized contractors are being given access to the Palisades Fire burn area with access passes, which are being distributed by law enforcement at the Disaster Recovery Center in West Los Angeles, 10850 Pico Blvd., and at the West Los Angeles Civic Center, 1645 Corinth Ave. Passes can be obtained daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Red Cross and county health officials have been distributing personal protective equipment to people heading for the burn area, and authorities urged people to wear protection as they sift through the potentially hazardous debris.

Pacific Coast Highway was reopened between Santa Monica and Malibu on Monday, but a stretch of the roadway was closed again Monday due to fears of possible debris or mud flows caused by two storms bearing down on the region. PCH will remain closed until at least Friday between Chautauqua Boulevard in Los Angeles and Carbon Beach Terrace in Malibu.

Both the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire in the Altadena and Pasadena areas, which erupted on Jan. 7, are now fully contained, according to Cal Fire.

City News Service, Inc. contributed to this report.