Woolsey Fire Debris Cleanup Begins In Agoura Hills

AGOURA HILLS, CA — On Monday, the National Park Service closed several locations in the Santa Monica Mountains near Agoura Hills to clean up remaining debris from the 2018 Woolsey Fire.

The NPS has said that cleanup will take place at Paramount Ranch’s Western Town in Saratoga Hills off Cornell Road, and Cheeseboro and Palo Comado Canyon in Agoura Hills, among others. The areas will be closed for the foreseeable future while cleanup continues, according to CBS News.

It has been no small task cleaning up after a nearly two-week long fire that burned 88 percent of National Park Service land in the Santa Monica Mountains. In November, the NPS began testing burn areas for toxins ahead of the debris cleanup that began Monday.

In February, NPS staff cut down the “Witness Tree,” a large, beloved, century-old oak tree in Paramount Ranch damaged in the fire. It was called the Witness Tree because it had witnessed many films, weddings, and other events before the fire.

The cleanup comes not long after a two-alarm fireburned more than 15 acres near Liberty Canyon Road just south of the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills on June 12. LA and Ventura County Fire Departments were able to contain the fire after about four hours, but the cleanup took much longer. No structures were damaged, according to The Acornnewspaper.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has warned that the state’s fire danger season has been getting longer each year because of climate change, and the coronavirus pandemic has left firefighters less prepared than usual to handle it.