These L.A. homeowners had coverage for fire. But not for the toxins left behind.

Jonathan Bowers, executive vice president of FireTestPro, performs a tape lift of combustion by-product from the Eaton Fire in the kitchen of a rental home in Altadena, California. (Philip Cheung/For The Washington Post)

By Anna Phillips

Armed with an industrial hygienist’s report showing that the fires that blazed through Los Angeles last month had filled his home with toxic ash and soot, Damian Horan filed a claim with his insurance company and waited for help.

He had paid for smoke damage coverage as part of his policy with the California FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort. Every part of his surviving Pacific Palisades home that had been tested, from the attic to the heating and air conditioning system, had turned up positive for hazardous smoke residue. But when the FAIR