Annette Rossilli, 85, died in Palisades fire after resisting evacuation offers to stay with her pets

• January 18, 2025

Bubbly, happy, friendly — Annette Rossilli was known for her love of orchids, her pets and her purple hair.

Rossilli, 85, was a longtime resident of the Pacific Palisades who died in the fire that raged through her community.

The devoted pet owner stayed in her home after evacuation orders were issued on Tuesday, Jan. 7, to be with her pets — a dog named Greetly, a canary named Pepper, two parrots and a turtle. Neighbors, church friends and caregivers tried multiple times to help Rossilli evacuate, but she declined.

“Such a lovely lady,” said Fay Vahdani, the owner of Luxe Homecare, the home health care agency that provided care for Rossilli three days a week due to her mobility issues. “Very sweet and had been living at that house for many years. It is where she raised her children.”

Rossilli is survived by a daughter and son who live out of state, Vahdani said in a phone interview.

The longtime Pacific Palisades resident ran a plumbing business in the area for many years with her late husband. After he died, Rossilli continued to live in the same home.

Rossilli also was a cherished member of the Community United Methodist Church on Via de la Paz, which burned down in the wildfire. The Rev. John Shaver said Rossilli meant a lot to many church members, according to the United Methodist News.

She also volunteered with the Pacific Palisades Orchid Society and the United Women in Faith groups.

Vhadani said the last time she saw Rossilli was late last month, when she delivered holiday cookies to her house.

“She was so thankful to me for sending her a great caregiver to take care of her,” Vhadani said. “She was so grateful for what we were doing for her.”

The Luxe Homecare team and her caregiver got in contact with Rossilli multiple times letting her know that they would help her evacuate, but Rossilli kept declining. She wanted to stay behind to care for her beloved pets, Vhadani said.

“We tried, her neighbors tried,” Vhadani said. “She kept saying no.”

After the fire roared through the Pacific Palisades community, destroying thousands of homes as well as the Luxe Homecare office, firefighters later found Rossilli’s body on Jan. 8, according to Vahdani.

Those who knew Rossilli said they would remember their beloved neighbor, friend and patient.

“She was very bubbly, happy and friendly, and will be deeply missed,” Vhadani said.

​ Orange County Register 

Lakers’ Anthony Davis sits out against Nets with lingering foot ailment

• January 18, 2025

LOS ANGELES — Lakers All-Star big man Anthony Davis was a late scratch for Friday night’s home game against the Brooklyn Nets because of left plantar fasciitis – an injury designation that has lingered for the past two months.

Davis started the day as probable to play before being downgraded to questionable a little less than an hour before tipoff and ruled out 30 minutes before the game.

Friday was Davis’ third missed game of the season and his first absence since the Jan. 2 home win against the Portland Trail Blazers, which was the first night of a back-to-back, with Davis playing on the second night of the back-to-back set (a win against the Atlanta Hawks).

With Davis out, Jaxson Hayes started at center alongside Austin Reaves, Max Christie, Rui Hachimura and LeBron James.

Davis, who is averaging 25.8 points on 52.3% shooting, 11.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.1 blocked shots per game, has been on the injury report with a left foot ailment since a Nov. 6 road loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, a game he missed because of a “left heel contusion.” The team changed his injury designation to left plantar fasciitis ahead of the Nov. 8 home win against the Philadelphia 76ers.

The 31-year-old Davis has listed as probable because of the foot ailment ahead of most games over the past two months.

Dorian Finney-Smith missed his second consecutive game because of personal reasons. His wife announced the birth of their child on Wednesday morning on Instagram.

Newly-signed two-way contract big man Trey Jemison III was also available on Friday, while fellow two-way big man Christian Koloko was inactive.

“I gotta be a dog, man,” the 6-foot-10, 270-pound Jemison said Friday of Coach JJ Redick’s message to him. “Just bring great energy on the bench, games, talking loud. Be physical. Just be extremely physical, just help.

“I’m not here to be a superstar and I’m not here to score a lot of points; rebound, block shots, play defense.”

RUSSELL’S RETURN

There was a familiar face on the Nets for the Lakers, with Friday being D’Angelo Russell’s first game against the Lakers since the franchise traded him on Dec. 29, along with Maxwell Lewis and three second-round draft picks, to Brooklyn for Finney-Smith and Shake Milton.

Russell averaged a career-low 12.4 points in 26.3 minutes, which was his lowest minutes average since his third season, before the Lakers traded him.

He averaged 16.6 points and 5.9 assists during his entire second stint with the franchise.

Reaves, who Russell quickly befriended after rejoining the Lakers ahead of the February 2023 trade deadline, spoke about what he learned from Russell during their near two years as teammates.

“When he first got here, his main message to me was don’t let the distractions distract you,” Reaves said. “It was like, ‘you’re too good to get caught up in all the stuff that comes with not being in L.A. but playing for the organization. There’s always some type of chatter or something that’s going on around here.

“I think him being here in his young days, he learned that probably in a hard way. Basically taught me or kept preaching to me from day one not to get caught up in all that stuff. To just go out there and be a killer and do what I do. Like I’ve said a billion times, I have a bunch of love and respect for him. For all he all he taught me and we’ll continue to grow, learn, and our friendship will continue to grow.”

​ Orange County Register 

Senior living: I’m moving forward and facing the uncertainty of aging

• January 18, 2025

It takes a lot of courage to grow old.

I’ve come to appreciate this after conversations with hundreds of older adults over the past eight years for nearly 200 “Navigating Aging” columns.

Time and again, people have described what it’s like to let go of certainties they once lived with and adjust to new circumstances.

These older adults’ lives are filled with change. They don’t know what the future holds except that the end is nearer than it’s ever been.

And yet, they find ways to adapt. To move forward. To find meaning in their lives. And I find myself resolving to follow this path as I ready myself for retirement.

Patricia Estess, 85, of the Brooklyn borough of New York City spoke eloquently about the unpredictability of later life when I reached out to her as I reported a series of columns on older adults who live alone, sometimes known as “solo agers.”

Estess had taken a course on solo aging. “You realize that other people are in the same boat as you are,” she said when I asked what she had learned. “We’re all dealing with uncertainty.”

Consider the questions that older adults — whether living with others or by themselves — deal with year in and out: Will my bones break? Will my thinking skills and memory endure? Will I be able to make it up the stairs of my home, where I’m trying to age in place?

Will beloved friends and family members remain an ongoing source of support? If not, who will be around to provide help when it’s needed?

Will I have enough money to support a long and healthy life, if that’s in the cards? Will community and government resources be available, if needed?

It takes courage to face these uncertainties and advance into the unknown with a measure of equanimity.

“It’s a question of attitude,” Estess told me. “I have honed an attitude of: ‘I am getting older. Things will happen. I will do what I can to plan in advance. I will be more careful. But I will deal with things as they come up.’”

For many people, becoming old alters their sense of identity. They feel like strangers to themselves. Their bodies and minds aren’t working as they used to. They don’t feel the sense of control they once felt.

That requires a different type of courage — the courage to embrace and accept their older selves.

Marna Clarke, a photographer, spent more than a dozen years documenting her changing body and her life with her partner as they grew older. Along the way, she learned to view aging with new eyes.

“Now, I think there’s a beauty that comes out of people when they accept who they are,” she told me in 2022, when she was 70, just before her 93-year-old husband died.

Arthur Kleinman, a Harvard professor who’s now 83, gained a deeper sense of soulfulness after caring for his beloved wife, who had dementia and eventually died, leaving him grief-stricken.

“We endure, we learn how to endure, how to keep going. We’re marked, we’re injured, we’re wounded. We’re changed, in my case for the better,” he told me when I interviewed him in 2019. He was referring to a newfound sense of vulnerability and empathy he gained as a caregiver.

Herbert Brown, 68, who lives in one of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods, was philosophical when I met him at his apartment building’s annual barbecue in June.

“I was a very wild person in my youth. I’m surprised I’ve lived this long,” he said. “I never planned on being a senior. I thought I’d die before that happened.”

Truthfully, no one is ever prepared to grow old, including me. (I’m turning 70 in February.)

Chalk it up to denial or the limits of imagination. As May Sarton, a writer who thought deeply about aging, put it so well: Old age is “a foreign country with an unknown language.” I, along with all my similarly aged friends, are surprised we’ve arrived at this destination.

For me, 2025 is a turning point. I’m retiring after four decades as a journalist. Most of that time, I’ve written about our nation’s enormously complex health care system. For the past eight years, I’ve focused on the unprecedented growth of the older population — the most significant demographic trend of our time — and its many implications.

In some ways, I’m ready for the challenges that lie ahead. In many ways, I’m not.

The biggest unknown is what will happen to my vision. I have moderate macular degeneration in both eyes. Last year, I lost central vision in my right eye. How long will my left eye pick up the slack? What will happen when that eye deteriorates?

Like many people, I’m hoping scientific advances outpace the progression of my condition. But I’m not counting on it. Realistically, I have to plan for a future in which I might become partially blind.

It’ll take courage to deal with that.

Then, there’s the matter of my four-story Denver house, where I’ve lived for 33 years. Climbing the stairs has helped keep me in shape. But that won’t be possible if my vision becomes worse.

So my husband and I are taking a leap into the unknown. We’re renovating the house, installing an elevator, and inviting our son, daughter-in-law, and grandson to move in with us. Going intergenerational. Giving up privacy. In exchange, we hope our home will be full of mutual assistance and love.

There are no guarantees this will work. But we’re giving it a shot.

Without all the conversations I’ve had over all these years, I might not have been up for it. But I’ve come to see that “no guarantees” isn’t a reason to dig in my heels and resist change.

Thank you to everyone who has taken time to share your experiences and insights about aging. Thank you for your openness, honesty, and courage. These conversations will become even more important in the years ahead, as baby boomers like me make their way through their 70s, 80s, and beyond. May the conversations continue.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. 

​ Orange County Register 

Former Stanton councilmember accused of not living in district she represented, lying on election paperwork

• January 18, 2025

The Orange County District Attorney’s office has charged former Stanton Councilmember Hong Alyce Van with multiple felonies, alleging she no longer lived in the district she represented and lied on her candidate paperwork when she sought reelection.

The DA’s Office on Friday, Jan. 17, announced Van, 40, who represented District 2 on the Stanton City Council from 2020 to 2024, had been charged with four felony charges: perjury; offering a false or forged document to be filed, registered; filing false nomination papers; and not being entitled to vote at an election.

Van could not be immediately reached for comment.

Prosecutors allege Van, less than a year after being elected in November 2020 to the City Council, purchased a home in District 4 in Stanton with her husband and son, according to the DA’s Office. Van did not sell her previous home in District 2 and allowed other family members to live in her former home, according to the DA’s Office.

On days of council meetings, Van would leave her home in District 4 and drive to her previous home in District 2 before walking to City Hall to attend meetings, according to the DA’s Office.

Van, after moving away from her District 2 home, should have resigned, the DA’s Office press release said, but she continued to serve on the council.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer described the alleged violations as “deliberate decisions to interfere with our democratic process.”

In July, Van submitted an Affidavit of Nominee under penalty of perjury to run for re-election in District 2, when she was ineligible to run for the seat, the DA’s Office said in its announcement. She later used her former District 2 address for her voter registration to vote in November’s election, according to the DA’s Office.

Van lost her race to Victor Barrios in the November election for the District 2 council seat.

Van was born in a refugee camp in Hong Kong and is the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, according to a biography published on the Stanton city website. She has lived in the city since she was 2 and was appointed to the City Council in 2019, it said.

Van is scheduled for arraignment on Jan. 29, the DA’s Office press release said.

​ Orange County Register 

Laguna Beach ocean closure due to sewage spill is reduced, but waters are still closed off Aliso Beach

• January 18, 2025

An ocean closure off Laguna Beach prompted by a sewage spill last week has been reduced in size.

Officials with the Orange County Environmental Health Division said Friday, Jan. 17, the closure will remain in effect for Treasure Island Beach to 500 feet downcoast of Aliso Creek.

The reduced area remains closed to swimming, surfing, and diving after the sewage spilled from a main line that broke Jan. 10 near Laguna Niguel Regional Park.

The Moulton Niguel Water District told city officials that approximately 600,000 gallons had spilled and 130,000 gallons were recovered before reaching the Sulphur Creek and Aliso Creek confluence, Mayor Alex Rounaghi. About 1 million gallons of creek water were removed by the district in its efforts.

Marine Safety Chief Kai Bond said water samples have been taken daily at the beach and in the estuary and creek.

The berm at Aliso Beach, which keeps water in the creek from entering the ocean, breached naturally on Wednesday morning because of a high tide and sand shift, Bond said.

But, samples taken Wednesday and Thursday were clear of bacteria in some areas, he said, reducing the amount of ocean water that required closure.

The OC Health Care Agency tests at least eight different locations, Bond said.

Samples will continue to be taken over the next few days, and the all-clear for water use will be given when there have been two consecutive days of clean results, he said.

​ Orange County Register 

Crypto ‘Godfather’ and LA sheriff’s deputy to plead guilty in intimidation/extortion conspiracy

• January 18, 2025

A cryptocurrency businessman who dubbed himself “The Godfather” and a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy have agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges for alleged involvement in a conspiracy that used intimidation, extortion and illegal search warrants against multiple victims, officials said Friday.

Adam Iza, 24, who has homes in Beverly Hills and Newport Coast, was named in L.A. federal court this week in a three-count superseding information that charges him with conspiracy against rights, wire fraud and tax evasion.

Eric Chase Saavedra, 41, of Chino, an LASD deputy and former federal task force officer, was separately charged Friday with conspiracy against rights and subscribing to a false tax return.

Both defendants have agreed to plead guilty to the charges and are expected to make their initial appearances in downtown Los Angeles in the coming days, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Iza, the founder of the Zort cryptocurrency trading platform, admitted in his plea agreement to having hired off-duty LASD deputies to act as his personal enforcers against perceived enemies. As part of the conspiracy, Iza would have the deputies assist in carrying out abuses of legal process, court papers show.

One of the deputies Iza employed was Saavedra, who also served as a federal officer assigned to the U.S. Marshals Service’s fugitive task force, court papers show.

Saavedra founded a private security company, Saavedra & Associates, which provided private security for its clients and often employed active LASD deputies and other law enforcement officers. Iza hired Saavedra’s company to provide round-the-clock security at a typical cost of $100,000 per month, prosecutors said.

Starting in 2021, Saavedra illegally used his LASD credentials to access sensitive law enforcement databases to obtain personal identifiable information for Iza, including for people with whom Iza had personal or business disputes, their associates and their family members, prosecutors allege.

According to his plea agreement, Saavedra admitted that he used his powers as a sworn law enforcement officer to improperly obtain court-authorized search warrants related to people with whom Iza had disputes, including a warrant to search an individual’s home and a warrant to obtain location information associated with another person.

Iza, Saavedra and others used confidential information that deputies obtained to find, intimidate, harass, threaten and extort individuals with whom Iza had disputes and their associates, according to court documents. They also used Telegram and other encrypted communications apps to avoid law enforcement detection, the DOJ alleged.

Federal prosecutors say that in one alleged incident, after securing an illegal warrant, Saavedra tracked down a victim and provided the person’s address to Iza. In March 2022, prosecutors contend, Iza caused three armed individuals to break into the victim’s home, but they fled after the victim fired a gunshot in their direction. Afterward, Iza sent the victim a video of the attempted home invasion robbery, according to the DOJ.

The documents filed this week describe other violent acts, including an August 2021 event during which two LASD deputies held a victim at gunpoint inside Iza’s residence. Aftterward, Iza caused $25,000 to be transferred from the victim’s bank account to his own, and an October 2021 event in which Iza himself held a victim at gunpoint, causing that victim to transfer $127,000 to Iza, according to federal prosecutors.

Iza also admitted in his plea agreement to stealing more than $37 million by fraudulently gaining access to business manager accounts and associated lines of credit of Meta Platforms Inc., which owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp.

Both Iza and Saavedra admitted to federal tax crimes. Iza allegedly avoided paying about $6.7 million in federal income tax due for the year 2021, while Saavedra received around $373,150 in unreported income and subscribed to a false tax return for 2021, according to the DOJ.

“Mr. Iza’s and Mr. Saavedra’s relationship was little more than a thuggish partnership between a thief and a crooked cop,” Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher, IRS Criminal Investigation, Los Angeles Field Office, said in a statement.

“The public should be able to trust members of law enforcement, but Mr. Saavedra violated his oath for a payday. Mr. Iza stole from anyone he could and found a big payday by ripping off Meta so that he could afford to pay for Mr. Saavedra’s corrupt protection and assistance.”

After pleading guilty, Iza will face up to 35 years in federal prison. Saavedra will face up to 13 years in federal prison, prosecutors noted.

​ Orange County Register 

USC’s Eric Musselman, like Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, doles out heavy minutes

• January 18, 2025

LOS ANGELES — The only time his legs found a seat last weekend in Champaign, Illinois, was for 60 measly seconds, and USC forward Saint Thomas found himself laboring amid USC’s upset bid. He’d played the most minutes of anyone in a Trojans jersey. And midgame, naturally, he asked head coach Eric Musselman for a break.

Denied.

“He said if I wanna be an NBA player,” Thomas after USC’s win over Iowa on Tuesday, “I gotta suck it up.”

Teammate Desmond Claude grinned next to him, USC’s point guard having just played every single second in defeating the Hawkeyes.

“Shoot,” Claude smirked, speaking of Musselman, “he did that to me today.”

He has done this, in fact, for years, the 60-year-old Musselman operating with a trust in his veterans’ legs and a no-nonsense approach to substitutions that harkens to his earliest days in the profession. Look at a box score from one of his old Nevada teams, Musselman cracked after that Iowa win: Twins and future NBA wings Caleb and Cody Martin “never came out of a game,” he put it. At Arkansas, former assistant Gus Argenal remembered, Musselman would sometimes act like he couldn’t hear a player if they asked for a sub. He’d simply turn away.

Sure, that might have drawbacks. Musselman acknowledged, smiling, that a “couple guys might’ve been exhausted” after USC’s defense slipped toward the end against Iowa. But Thomas and Claude, and a heap of transfers, had come to USC to play for Musselman specifically for the trust he’d expressed in them. He’d put the ball in their hands. He was “letting us rock,” Claude put it, as USC’s offense has suddenly erupted across an eight-game stretch in which the Trojans are averaging 84 points a game.

That will mean a heavy dose of heavy minutes. And the occasional back turned on a request for a sub.

“He said, ‘Nah, Tom Thibodeau don’t do this,’” Thomas said Tuesday, recounting Musselman’s words to him in Illinois. “Like, you gon’ stay in the game.’”

It’s no random reference, as the New York Knicks head coach is still one of Musselman’s best friends. Over three decades ago, Musselman joined his late father Bill Musselman’s staff with the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves. On staff already was a young Thibodeau, whom Bill Musselman had plucked from Harvard.

The young Musselman lived on the seventh floor of Hennepin Crossing Apartments, in downtown Minneapolis, in the Timberwolves’ second season in 1990-91. Thibodeau lived on the sixth floor. When Musselman was leaving his apartment, he’d stomp the floor to alert Thibodeau, and the two would run to the Target Center together. They played pickup ball at a health club five or six days a week with Bill Musselman, the runs becoming the stuff of local Minnesota legends.

They were all on staff together for just one year. But that year still trickles into how Musselman and Thibodeau operate, shared branches on a Bill Musselman tree that’s lived throughout modern basketball long after his death in 2000.

“Something now that he’s passed, especially – it’s so, so important, that timeframe,” Musselman told the Southern California News Group in the summer.

Bill Musselman, simply, was a different guy, as fellow former Timberwolves staffer and former Milwaukee Bucks general manager John Hammond put it. He had his own way of doing things. In life. In coaching. In Minnesota, Bill Musselman built his roster in part from veterans he’d coached previously with the CBA’s Albany Patroons. He did not tank, even as the Timberwolves struggled; he played former guard Tony Campbell, who averaged 23.2 points a game, nearly 39 minutes a night.

Musselman would tell his staff stories, Argenal remembered, of him and Thibodeau trying to convince Bill to play other players. Younger players. Musselman’s father wouldn’t do it.

“He was playing the best guys he thought were capable of getting it done, night in and night out,” Campbell remembered. “That was – that was his stance on that.

Eric Musselman, he’ll tell you himself, is his father’s son – a “copy of his dad,” as former Timberwolves center Randy Breuer put it. Hammond, meanwhile, will still watch Thibodeau patrolling the sidelines 30 years later and see Bill Musselman in him: in the mannerisms, in the steely-eyed intensity. Musselman once played future NBA guard Anthony Black 35 minutes a night in 2022-23, leading the SEC; Thibodeau’s heavy minutes have become the stuff of legends in NBA ranks.

“I think they’re very similar, in how they do things,” Hammond reflected, on Musselman and Thibodeau.

Musselman has started every season dating to Arkansas and Nevada, as Argenal reflected, by playing a deep rotation before trimming. In 2021-22, the Razorbacks started 0-3 in SEC play. Musselman resolved, as Argenal remembered, to take a page from his father’s playbook: When you’re in a tough spot, play your five toughest guys.

The next game against Missouri, Musselman started three bigs at once. Arkansas won 87-43, and later made a run to the Elite Eight.

“I know that when we got in tough spots at Arkansas, at Nevada, it was like, ‘OK, well, we just gotta go into battle with these guys that we know are really tough,’” Argenal said.

Years later, now at USC, Musselman has the Trojans (11-6, 3-3 Big Ten) head into a key Big Ten stretch, starting with No. 24 Wisconsin on Saturday. Claude and backcourt mate Wesley Yates III each played all 40 minutes against Iowa. Thomas and Chibuzo Agbo each played at least 37. Two months after Musselman started the season tweaking the minutes of 11 or 12 Trojans, he played just seven against Iowa.

And if Thomas or Claude are declined a sub again, they’ll in some way have Thibodeau and Bill Musselman to thank.

USC vs. No. 24 Wisconsin

When: Noon Saturday

Where: Galen Center

TV/radio: Big Ten Network/710 AM

USC at Nebraska

When: 6 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Pinnacle Bank Arena, Lincoln, Neb.

TV/radio: Big Ten Network/710 AM

​ Orange County Register 

Air quality monitoring not equipped to measure full dangers from Eaton, Palisades fires, experts say

• January 18, 2025

A race against time.

That’s how one air quality expert describes the current public health situation in Los Angeles, where thousands are coping with destruction wreaked by the Palisades and Eaton fires.

Together, the fires have ravaged more than 37,000 acres since they broke out last Tuesday — leaving over 12,000 structures, including homes, business, cars, and more, melted to nothing in their path.

And unlike California’s usual wildland fires — which have occurred in mostly forested, sparsely populated areas creating typical smoke and particulate matter pollution — the public health ramifications of the current L.A. wildfires are much greater, experts say.

“There’s all kinds of chemicals that you cannot see in the air. They are not measured by the Air Quality Index — and they’re extraordinarily toxic,” California Communities Against Toxics executive director Jane Williams said in a recent public briefing. “We are literally in a race against time to stop the disaster after the disaster, and try to intercept these exposures that we know are already occurring.”

Pollution created by the Palisades and Eaton fires differs from typical wildfire smoke largely because so many buildings and cars — home to a host of potentially toxic materials — were burned down.

Melted home electronics and vehicles, for example, are potential sources of exposure to toxic metals including lead, cadmium and aluminum, Williams said during the Thursday, Jan. 16 Coalition for Clean air briefing. Homes with furniture and building materials containing plastic and vinyl create volatile organic compounds when burned, she said.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District, the government agency charged with regulating and improving air quality for much of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernadino Counties, monitors the region’s air quality for five major pollutants including particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide  — but it doesn’t account for ash from fires, nor other toxic compounds that may have been released into the air by the fires.

“(We’re) really looking at the type of problems that occur when you’ve dropped a bomb on a city — it’s really unprecedented in the country’s history what’s happened here,” Williams said. “So, this is what you’re most likely breathing now if you live anywhere near any of the burn zones, and none of this will be monitored by any of the existing air pollution monitoring.”

That essentially means that even when the AQMD’s air quality index reads “good” or “moderate” — the data isn’t accounting for those toxic chemicals and ash.

The potential health impacts from the fire-related air pollution are varied. Small particles from smoke, dubbed particulate matter 2.5 or PM 2.5, can penetrate deep in the lungs and sometimes enter the bloodstream, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Exposure to particulate matter can exacerbate pre-existing pulmonary conditions such as asthma, cause heart attacks, decreased lung function, and even premature death, the EPA said. The California Air Resources Board estimates that particulate matter exposure contributes to the early deaths of about 5,400 Californians every year.

Though the risk of exposure is greatest for people in close proximity to the fires. Williams cautioned people eager to return to Pacific Palisades or Altadena to survey the damage to their communities to avoid doing so for the foreseeable future — especially without any personal protective equipment.

“It is a very powerful sociological drive to return to your home — and the problem is, that we we do not emphasize enough that you are breathing in particles that you cannot see, the Air Quality Index doesn’t tell you they’re there,” Williams said. “But when you breathe them in, even for relatively short periods of time, they get lodged inside your lungs in your body, and have just enormous public health impacts.”

Law enforcement officials have yet to allow residents to return to the remains of their homes in both Pacific Palisades and Altadena as efforts to contain both fires continue — and the county prepares to safely remove hazardous debris from the areas.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, on Thursday, issued a new mandate prohibiting the removal of fire debris from affected areas until an approved government agency can perform a hazardous materials inspection.

“Fire debris, ash, and dirt from residential and structural fires may contain asbestos, heavy metals, and other hazardous substances,” DPH said in its order. “Improper handling or disposal of fire debris can increase these risks, spreading hazardous substances throughout the community and endangering workers, residents, and the environment. Fire debris must be removed safely to prevent more harm.”

That order, though, doesn’t apply to the collection of personal property from residential sites. DPH advised anyone allowed to return to their homes to wear proper respiratory, eye, and skin protection.

For people around the immediate areas impacted by the fires, officials recommend monitoring local air quality data — bearing in mind that not all pollutants are represented in that data — and taking precautions based on if they smell or see smoke, or begin to experience adverse health reactions such as rapid heartbeat, difficulty breathing, runny noise, cough, chest pain and eye irritation.

“Ash will remain a concern in the communities near the fires, especially on windy days when winds blow over the burned areas,” AQMD spokesperson Jack Chin said Friday. “If you see ash in the air, smell smoke, or if AQI levels are elevated, take precautions to avoid exposure.”

In those cases, people are advised to wear a well-fitting N95 mask if they go outdoors, though it’s best to stay inside and keep windows and doors closed, run an air conditioner or a high-efficiency air purifier, and avoid vacuuming, frying food, burning candles or using gas-powered appliances when air quality is bad.

Officials aren’t sure how long air quality issues will persist in the Los Angeles region as a result of the fires, though it will likely be a concern for the foreseeable future.

“It is unclear how long windblown ash will be produced from these burned areas,” Chin said. “We’ve seen ash transport from large burn scars on wildlands until vegetation grows over the area in the following spring. Rainfall and clean-up efforts will likely influence ash transport from burned urban areas.”

Aside from monitoring the AQMD’s Air Quality Index, a smoke and fire air quality data map is also available at fire.airnow.gov. This map, aside from PM 2.5 concentrations, also includes information about fire locations and smoke plumes.

For additional information about air quality and public health, visit the AQMD, the California Air Resources Board, AirNow, or the Department of Public Health‘s websites.

​ Orange County Register