
One family’s struggle to save their smoke-damaged home
On a quiet, well-manicured street in Altadena stands the home of Dave and Kelsey Szamet. Their Spanish Mediterranean house stands stately amidst surrounding verdant vegetation. But the inside of the architectural structure belies a serioushealth threat. While the interior of the Szamet home is exactly how it was left when they evacuated from the Eaton Fire Jan. 7, it is now filled with invisible hazards — smoke damage — toxic particulate matter that can irritate the respiratory system and with prolonged exposure cause cancer.
“We are sort of on the front line of really mass devastation,” Kelsey Szamet explained of where the fire started. “The homes across the street did not survive going all the way up into the foothills and the fire just tore west from here. It’smiraculous that our home survived.”
The Szamet home did survive not just by miracles, but with the help of good Samaritan neighbors who formed a bucket brigade from a nearby home with a pool after their hoses ran dry. Unlike in Malibu, many Altadena pool owners don’thave pool pumps used to help put out fires since most Altadenans typically didn’t identify as living in an extreme fire risk area.
Still, the Szamets and their two young daughters have not spent one single night in their home since Jan. 7. The family had been bouncing from hotels to friends’ homes. They were in six different places in just the first few weeks after the fire and say that burden is a struggle for their young children.
“The home’s absolutely not safe,” Szamet stated. “Within the first week that initial gratitude of, oh my gosh, the house survived and we feel fortunate, we still have our family photos and some important family pieces that other people lost.But then the reality sits in, in those weeks and months after the fire of it doesn’t feel like the insurance company is interested in getting our house cleaned safely, enabling us to get back in with our young daughters and to come back to the neighborhood.”
Kelsey Szamet elaborated on her struggles with her insurance company currently being investigated by the California Department of Insurance for mishandling claims. “It feels like they’re fighting us every step of the way. It feels like we’reon our own. Our company is State Farm, and they have never offered to lead the way and (direct us) to the kind of testing we need to do. This is what we need to look at inside your house to properly clean it and make it safe so that you can come back. We’re on our own. We’re trying to figure out what the science is. We’re trying to figure out what is safe.” The family has paid $10,800 out of pocket for industrial hygiene testing. The results showed 20 times the allowable limits of lead in most rooms, including their young daughters’ bedrooms.
After finally finding some stability in a Pasadena rental, they are still looking for long-term solutions to remediate their home. “When you have lead inside a structure, you have to use a certified lead abatement company in California. You can’t use, you know, Jane Doe’s cleaning service. The bids we have gotten are upwards of $110,000 and we’re just getting push back from our insurance company. They have told us that they now want to bring in a different company to dotesting. We’re not sure why, because the company that we used actually was a State Farm-approved vendor coincidentally.We worked with a vendor that they have approved, that found lead. I can’t imagine that new testing would reveal different results, but they have not approved our light abatement remediation bid.”
The Szamets joined the Eaton Fire Survivors Network to push for accountability by insurance companies and government on behalf everyone affected by the fires including those in the Palisades and Malibu.
“All these insurance companies need to help homeowners get back safely into their standing structures. It’s going to be expensive to properly clean these homes, but that’s what we paid for, in our policies, right?” Szamet exclaimed. “You insure against disasters like this, and it’s clear what the science says. The home needs to be cleaned properly. I would never jeopardize the health of my young daughters. Lead is extremely toxic to children and it feels like they don’t care.”
At one point the Szamets were $119,000 out of pocket until State Farm started reimbursing rent under their (ALE) Alternative Living Expense claim. The family also missed out on a FEMA payout of $770 due to fraud. Swindlers used their name and address to apply for the initial grant and claimed the check before they could. The Szamets say they’realso frustrated with the rotating cast of adjusters. They’re on their third, but say they have friends on their sixth or seventh.
Their advice for others in the same boat: “Document, document, document. They (insurance companies) get you on the phone on purpose. They do not send confirming emails. You need to send confirming emails. You need to upload things on the portal. You need to keep a contemporaneous Google doc of all of the representations that have been made for you because they will walk it back and say, ‘no, that’s not true. We never agreed to that.’ Document, document, document.”


