Mendocino Complex Fire Disaster Debris Removal, Lake County, CA

The Mendocino Complex Fire burned over 459,123 acres in Northern California destroying houses and other structures. CalRecycle contracted ERRG to perform emergency fire debris removal and recovery services at 56 residential lots to cleanup houses and structures located in a remote mountainous area destroyed or damaged by the Mendocino Complex wildfire disaster. ERRG worked with CalRecycle’s Incident Management Team to complete coordinated debris removal and within three days of being contracted, ERRG mobilized 16 Task Force cleanup teams to conduct the cleanup work.  The burn ash, recyclable metals, concrete, and excavated soil were segregated, handled, and tracked separately to determine material quantities and costs associated with each property during the cleanup efforts.  Properly trained and qualified personnel performed asbestos abatement, chimney, and hazardous tree removal.  Unseasonably heavy rains caused significant erosion to the remote mountainous roads rendering many impassible.

CalReycle directed ERRG to repair 104 miles of gravel and dirt roads required to access the properties and over 6 miles of paved County road that had become dangerously potholed. During road restoration, ERRG installed six open water creek crossings and proactively coordinated access with a landowner to install a smaller temporary bridge to bypass a large unsafe bridge, thereby minimizing time and cost to the project.

In total, 13,750 tons of burn ash debris, metal, and concrete were generated during the emergency fire debris removal and recovery operation, requiring more than 1,370 dump truck loads of vehicles to transport the material to licensed and permitted facilities for either landfill disposal as nonhazardous waste or recyclable materials. Once debris removal operations were complete, CalRecycle’s consultant collected soil samples for analytical testing to confirm that established site cleanup goals had been met.