California lawmakers passed two bills on Monday to address smoke damage in homes left after the 2025 Los Angeles-area fires, sending the measures to Gavin Newsom. One bill would set scientific standards for when a home is safe to re-enter; the other would require insurers to follow those standards in claims handling.
The legislation came out of the 2026 legislative session and was aimed at homes contaminated after the 2025 Eaton fire, where thousands of houses were left with lead contamination, including levels hundreds of times what the EPA considers safe. The bills cover both testing and the practical step that follows: when residents can move back in and how insurers must treat those claims.
AB 1642 and AB 1795
Assembly Bill 1642 directs the Department of Toxic Substances Control to create scientific standards for what counts as a safe home and to give guidance on proper remediation. AB 1795 requires insurers to abide by those standards in the claims process and do so in a timely manner. The two measures take effect only if Newsom signs both.
The bills were originally at odds with each other, but were brought into alignment after intervention from the governor’s office. That leaves one clear step before they can change how smoke-damaged homes are handled across California: the governor must act on both companion laws together.
Dawn Fanning on recovery
Dawn Fanning, managing director at Eaton Fire Residents United, said, “It took a lot of work to get here, and we’re really happy where we landed,” after what she described as an eleventh-hour sprint. She also said the post-fire recovery had been “the Wild West, trying to scramble to find answers,” reflecting how residents have had to deal with competing questions about contamination, cleanup and insurance.
The package was designed to deal with the aftermath of the Eaton fire and the Palisades fires, which destroyed more than 16,000 structures and killed 31 people. For affected homeowners, the practical issue now is whether the new standards and insurance rules become law together, because the claims process would have to follow the contamination standard rather than leaving each case to its own fight.
