Supervisors in Butte County extended the deadline Tuesday for property owners to apply for debris cleanup amid recovery from the Park and Thompson fires. The original deadline was Jan. 15. It's now March 14.
Danielle Nuzum, deputy administrative officer, said there are still about 150 eligible properties that aren't enrolled in the cleanup program.
She said the county has been reaching out to residents over the past few months.
“There are multiple efforts underway in recovery to reach property owners,” Nuzum told supervisors Tuesday. “Applications and fliers have been posted on property sites. Email and phone calls to individual property owners has occurred and is repeating.”
Kristi Olio, Butte County’s public information officer for the Park Fire, said clean up is crucial because there are contaminants and hazardous household waste in structural debris.
“Paint thinners, batteries, the asbestos from their home, all of those things are still there,” Olio said. “They're just burned. So they pose a huge public health hazard not only to just the property owner, but the community as a whole.”
Butte County’s current municipal code requires properties affected by the fires to request state-led cleanup efforts via the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services or use a county-approved contractor to clean up debris. The state program has no out-of-pocket costs, while costs for a county-approved contractor would need to be covered by the property owner.
“Both programs get to the same end result,” Olio said. “It's just really how residents choose to get there.”
If landowners in the burn scars of the Thompson and Park fires don't enroll in the cleanup program before the new March deadline, the county could move toward liens on on properties.