Pacific Palisades and Malibu Rebuild: Who Hauls What

Who cleared the burn sites in the first place?

The 2025 cleanup was run by government programs, and none of it was a junk-removal job. As the County's recovery site describes it, the work came in phases: hazardous-materials removal first, led by federal agencies, then debris removal run by the Army Corps of Engineers with LA County, covering burned structures, ash and contaminated soil. Check the phase descriptions on the County's recovery pages, because we are summarizing them. The Corps reported more than 4,000 property debris removals in the Palisades by late August 2025, and by the six-month mark about 3,450 destroyed City of LA residential properties, roughly 80 percent, had final sign-off, per the Mayor's office.

The scale is worth keeping in mind. The Palisades Fire began January 7, 2025 and destroyed 6,831 structures and damaged 973, fire-wide. In Malibu, the city's eastern edge took the worst of it, from Topanga to Duke's. We do not handle fire ash or burned-structure debris, and we say so plainly: those materials were handled by government programs, and they need certified handling that private junk haulers are not set up for. Sources differ on the exact date the Palisades cleanup finished, so we do not give one.

Where does the rebuild stand, and what is still unconfirmed?

The numbers move quickly, so here is what the public record shows, as of November 2026 and with dates. Construction could not begin until both cleanup phases were complete, and the City waived demolition permits and grading requirements for burned lots. Per reporting on City records, 3,090 building and electrical permits had been approved in the Palisades by January 2, 2026, 563 of them for new buildings, with an average wait of 49 days. The first certificate of occupancy for a full Palisades rebuild came in late 2025. By mid-2026, reports put the Palisades at roughly 1,419 rebuild permits by July and only about 28 to 35 certificates of occupancy by July or August, so the large majority of lots are still in permitting or early construction.

Malibu's first post-fire certificate of occupancy went to a rebuilt Big Rock home in June 2026, the same month the city issued its 100th rebuild permit. Per NBC LA, 45 permit applications had been approved and 41 homes were in construction, mostly at Big Rock. An August 2026 report still described the city as largely unrebuilt. Figures vary by source and by date, so treat any single count as a snapshot, not a scoreboard.

Who hauls what during the rebuild?

This is the question owners ask us most, and the honest answer is a division of labor. Your general contractor is usually responsible for the construction and demolition waste the work generates: framing offcuts, drywall scrap, concrete, packaging, roofing, and the like, typically handled through the bid. Check your contract. We are not a substitute for that, and we do not rent dumpsters.

The practical test: does it need an excavator, a licensed contractor's paperwork, or a hazardous-waste manifest? Then it is not ours. Can two people lift it onto a truck? Then probably it is, and a photo settles the question.

What does rebuild-phase overflow look like in practice?

A few patterns repeat. In the Alphabet Streets and on Marquez Knolls, a framing crew finishes a stage, the bin is full, and the next inspection is Thursday. Someone needs a half-truck of offcuts and boxes gone by Wednesday. In Riviera and other neighborhoods where houses still stand, owners are pulling smoke-damaged sofas, mattresses, rugs and closets of clothing that no cleaner could save. In Brentwood and Santa Monica, families in temporary rentals are downsizing storage as they move again, with a house still months from done.

In Malibu, the same work stretches over a longer road. Big Rock, Las Flores, La Costa and Carbon Beach lots are mostly still in progress, and beachfront and hillside sites often load from PCH shoulders or private roads. PCH has been operating at reduced capacity with a 25 mph limit through the burn zone, which makes Carbon Beach about 25 minutes from Santa Monica, the Civic Center and Cross Creek about 30, and Point Dume about 40. That matters when you are scheduling a crew and a truck, so expect to book a time window and give us the gate or lockbox details up front. See our pages for Pacific Palisades and Malibu for access specifics.

Where does the debris go in Malibu and the Palisades?

Destinations differ because the jurisdictions differ. Pacific Palisades is in the City of Los Angeles, and the closest Westside transfer station to our base is Southern California Disposal in Santa Monica. Malibu is more complicated. The city is split between two haulers at John Tyler Road, Universal Waste Systems to the east in the Malibu Garbage Disposal District and WM to the west, and the city offers residents one free bulky-item day a year, booked through the hauler. The Calabasas Landfill, run by the LA County Sanitation Districts on Lost Hills Road, has a wasteshed restriction that includes Malibu, but we have not confirmed its public self-haul rules, and fire-debris dumping there was contested in 2025. We route loads to a licensed facility that accepts them and do not assume a given landfill is open to us.

Usable items still get a second life. Smoke-damaged soft goods generally do not qualify, and we say so on the quote.

Does storm season change the picture?

Rebuild sites and burn scars share ground. A half-built lot with a stack of lumber, cut-offs and loose soil is a lot of material for runoff to move, so builders and owners tend to clear staging areas before the rainy stretch. We are preparing for the forecast winter, not claiming to know how it goes.

If runoff sends mud across a patio or fills a garage, removal from private property is the owner's responsibility, per LA County. Hand-loadable mud and soaked debris is our work; sediment that needs heavy equipment is not. The dated NOAA forecasts, the burn-scar risk, sandbag sites and hotlines are all in our Westside storm-season debris guide, so we do not repeat them here. The service is described at storm and fire debris removal.

How do I start, and what should I have ready?

Text photos to (310) 905-5138 with the address, a note on whether the gate is locked, and where the pile sits. Miles replies with a clear price based on truck space; the method is on our pricing page. For a rebuild site, tell us whether the contractor knows we are coming, so nobody has to explain a truck to the neighbor's foreman. For general debris jobs, see debris removal. Hours are 24 hours a day, 24/7 If it still has life, it goes to charity, not the landfill.