Regarding post fire debris removal: How is the decision made as to the agency responsible for the debris mission?
On the Bay Area fires last year, it was Army Corps of Engineers (Federal agency, much/most of the fires and virtually all of the debris was either on SRA or Local government response areas). 3
I’m hearing it will be Cal Recycle on the Carr fire. Most of the debris is probably either SRA or LG but some of the fire was Federal.
Debris removal is the responsibility of the County or City where the incident occurred. If a Disaster is declared they can receive state or Federal assistance. That could be why a Federal agency took responsibility for the debri portion of the incident. Typically the county bids it out or selects a vendor on an emergency purchase basis.
CalOES takes the state lead, and coordinates everything from there. The Debris Removal Operations teams do the surveying, get the homeowners to fill out all the paperwork, and coordinate the contractors.
If you’re in the area where they’re working, you might hear them pop up on one of the commercial radio systems, since the State has been contracting with them to keep the DRO off the regular State radio systems and interoperability channels.