The Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, resulted in at least 85 civilian fatalities, and injured 12 civilians and 5 firefighters. It covered 153,336 acres and destroyed more than 18,000 structures, almost completely destroying the towns of Paradise, Concow, Magalia, and Butte Creek. The Federal and State of California cleanup response was broken into several contract packages to remove, process, and dispose of 5 million tons of materials at a cost of $3 billion. Odin was engaged under four contracts to support aspects of the overall response. Odin’s contributions to the Camp Fire cleanup included cleanup of residential lots, hazard tree felling in Paradise, construction and operation of a metals recycling facility, and construction and operation of a 1,500-bed temporary camp for cleanup workers.

Odin was assigned cleanup responsibility for 86 residential lots in Concow and Magalia, California. Utilizing five crews of five people each, with the support of a superintendent and project engineer, Odin was able to clear the assigned lots in approximately 20,000-man hours.

The cleanup consisted of one excavator operator and one dozer operator, with the other three crew members handling the smaller debris removal, dust control, and directing haul trucks. Each lot was cleared of metal, followed by general burned debris and concrete, before the soil was scraped and removed to ensure removal of all contaminants from the sites. In addition to structural debris removal, all vehicles were removed from the lots. The vehicles ranged from ATVs and motorcycles to cars and pickup trucks to RVs and buses, with the occasional boat and trailer. Due to the extreme heat of the summer months and working 6 days a week for 12 hours a day, safety concerns facing Odin were heat stroke and exhaustion for the crews, as well as dust control. In total, Odin removed and hauled for disposal 11,556 tons of burned debris, 2,717 tons of concrete, 559 tons of metal, 4,696 tons of soil, and 349 vehicles.