Authorities warn Lake County residents of scammers in wake of Valley fire

As a massive cleanup gets underway in Lake County, Valley fire survivors are being urged to watch out for con artists and to consider letting a state agency handle all the debris removal from their properties.

Government-sponsored cleanup efforts are slated to begin today as workers remove household hazardous waste from home sites in communities burned over by the 76,000-acre fire. The cleanup workers don’t need permission to enter private property because of the declared health emergency posed by hazardous waste from paint cans, aerosol containers and other items, county spokeswoman Jill Ruzicka said.

A second phase is expected to begin soon when the state Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecycle, offers free debris removal from each affected property in the burn area. Such cleaning does require a right of entry signed by the landowner, Ruzicka said.

In the cleanup and rebuilding phase, state and federal disaster officials are warning of the threat of scammers.

“In every disaster like this, we see fraud occur or attempts to defraud the survivors,” said Kelly Huston, deputy director of the state Office of Emergency Services.

Property owners should beware of those falsely claiming to be federal disaster workers or licensed building contractors. If they show up at your home, FEMA spokesman Bill Lehman said, “Verify.”

“Always ask these people to identify themselves,” Lehman said. Federal workers all carry official photo identification. Contractors should have a state license.

The Valley fire has destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings, including 1,280 homes, 27 multifamily structures and 66 commercial properties.

In the aftermath of disasters, residents typically are anxious to get their lives back to normal, officials said. But they urged property owners to avoid accepting a sweet-sounding offer without examination.

Maybe “it sounds like a really great deal, but it may not be,” Lehman said.

Landowners may even want to avoid hiring any contractors for the debris removal, Huston said. Instead, they may choose to let CalRecycle do the work.

That approach certainly is recommended by the county. The days are long gone when a homeowner can simply load up a pickup with burned materials and haul them down to the local dump. “There’s no landfill in Lake County that will accept the debris,” Ruzicka said.

Landowners won’t have to pay anything out of pocket for CalRecycle to do the work, she said. Those property owners with fire insurance must agree to let the state collect any funds that their insurers pay for debris removal.

Those who want to hire someone else or do the job themselves should be forewarned that the cleanup must meet stringent standards for the removal of asbestos, lead and other hazardous materials, Ruzicka said. If the cleanup is lacking, the landowner won’t be able to get permits to rebuild.

As part of the recovery efforts, federal teams will go through neighborhoods and ask residents to register for federal aid, Lehman said. After asking to see photo ID, a property owner if still suspicious can call FEMA’s Disaster Fraud Hotline, 866-720-5721, to verify that teams actually work for the federal agency. Also, the landowners can do the registration themselves by directly calling 800-621-FEMA.

Once the registration is complete, an inspector will arrange a visit to the property. The inspectors are instructed whenever possible not to show up unannounced, and they don’t require banking information or recommend contractors for repair work, according to FEMA.

In such disasters, scammers typically seek to impersonate federal workers in order to gather Social Security numbers and personal banking information, officials said. They also may offer cleanup services for those who put down a hefty advance payment, after which they can flee with the money without doing the work.

When hiring contractors, both the state and federal government recommend getting three estimates in writing. Huston said residents also could ask friends for recommendations or turn for suggestions to the Lake County Office of Emergency Services Facebook page.

In declared state and federal disaster areas, anyone found acting as a contractor without a license can face felony charges, according to the Contractors State License Board. A conviction can bring a sentence of up to 16 months in state prison and up to $10,000 in fines.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit.