Two months after a fire front passes, the remaining work is slow, close and repetitive. In early October, teams in northern Nevada began clearing damaged properties one address at a time, pulling lithium batteries, paints, coolants and cylinders out of the ash before demolition is authorised. It is sorting done by hand, on ground that is itself the contaminant.
The First Crew on the Lot Sorts by Hand
Material the landfill will not take is sorted into totes off site and routed to hazardous-waste disposal; cylinders are vented and cut, lead-bearing metal segregated. A lot moves on only after that sweep is signed off, so the first people on site are sorters facing an inventory nobody can itemise.
In Los Angeles County, the programme after the January 2025 fires cleared about 2.6 million tons from roughly 18,000 destroyed structures in 224,236 truckloads, with more than 4,000 workers trained within weeks. Each needed gloves and boots before the first shift.
Two Glove Problems in the Same Grasp
Debris guidance splits hand protection: leather for sharp edges, chemical gloves where chemical contact is possible. A burned lot refuses the split. The same reach lifts a charred stud with a nail in it and a swollen battery pack, while wet ground is alkaline enough to irritate skin.
Leather and aramid outers win the mechanical argument and lose the chemical one. They absorb fine ash, hold metal-bearing dust in the lining, and cannot be verified clean, so they become a reservoir worn against the skin all shift. Nitrile and laminate films do the opposite: they hold a barrier, then fail at a fractured slab edge.
The answer is two layers: a thin inner for hygiene, a heavier outer for cut and abrasion, changed at task boundaries rather than when they look dirty. Perspiration drives that rule: alkaline fines and sweat form a paste that stays in contact for hours, and contact dermatitis accumulates across a season.
Damaged lithium cells are the exception needing permeation data. Electrolyte salt reacts with moisture to release hydrogen fluoride, so a punctured pouch in a gloved hand is a small local source. A cut rating says nothing about that; the specification must name the electrolyte and HF.
The Boot Is the Sampling Device
Ash leaves on soles, in lace eyelets and up trouser cuffs, and arrives in vehicle footwells and the family home. Footwear is therefore the most consequential purchase on site.
That means laceless moulded uppers that can be washed, deep lugs, a boot-wash point on the dirty-clean boundary, and site boots that never enter a cab. Overboots belong to visitors, not to the person in the pile.
Chemical footwear standards test degradation rather than permeation, and mechanical standards cover toe caps and puncture plates. Neither certifies a boot against caustic ash plus sharps. Ask for the compatibility list, wash cycles survived and sole heat resistance: smouldering debris holds heat for days, and a sole softens before the wearer feels it.
What to Write Into the Order
Crews are hired by the hundred in weeks, so stock sizes at the extremes, with women's in the base range. Ask for pairs per worker-day, not per worker; two colours so inner and outer cannot be confused at the donning point; and a stated disposal route for contaminated gloves. For boots, require decontamination cycles in writing with the agent and temperature named, plus manufacture date and remaining shelf life on every delivery. In a programme measured in truckloads, the cheapest line item rarely decides how many people finish the season with intact skin.