By Jorge Garcia
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Logs and fallen trees charred by the devastating Eaton wildfire in January that scorched more than 14,000 acres (57 square km) east of Los Angeles are being repurposed to rebuild neighborhoods destroyed by the blaze.
Los Angeles-based Angel City Lumber, a private business, has launched the Altadena Reciprocity Project aimed at turning the city’s damaged trees into usable lumber that would otherwise be chipped and shipped off or left to decompose.
The finished-grade millwork lumber will be used for flooring, molding, and door and window jambs.
Jeff Perry, the founder of Angel City Lumber, estimates the project could produce between 1 and 2 million board feet for the rebuilding efforts in Altadena, a community in Los Angeles County of about 43,000, where it will be sold at a discounted price.
But Perry said they need more funding and workers to make that happen.
“We need more help and we need more resources because we’re just kind of skeleton crewing it,” said Perry.
Perry and his team have begun milling some of the Altadena logs at his lumber yard near downtown Los Angeles, but said they are short several thousand dollars that could speed up the milling process to assist residents looking for building materials over the next few years.
“We’re about two months out at any one point from receiving the machinery we need. So the faster we can move forward with that, the faster we can get going on milling,” he added.
Homeowner Matthew Burrows, 44, said he and his family lost everything in the Eaton Fire. He reached out to Perry, hoping a beloved tree could be preserved in some capacity. He described the tree as part of his family.
“Bringing that tree back into our lives, it’ll just be a constant reminder of those beautiful days that were and the amazing future that it’s gonna be,” said Burrows, wearing an Altadena baseball cap.
Perry said it has been tough to balance the business and the rebuilding project, but it remains an all-hands-on-deck effort for him and his team as homes are slowly erected in parts of the city.
“The connection to those particular trees that were their trees is that much more magnified, and so it’s an extra boost,” said Perry.
The Eaton Fire, along with the larger Palisades Fire and several smaller ones, created the worst natural disaster in Los Angeles County history, Cal Fire said.
At one point, 180,000 people were under evacuation orders, according to Los Angeles County officials.
(Reporting by Jorge Garcia; Writing by Mary Milliken; Editing by Rod Nickel)
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