After formulating a plan, the city of Los Angeles has begun hauling millions of pounds of rotting food out of a burned cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights.
Pest traps were placed outside the damaged warehouse and along neighboring residential streets, and city officials said Lineage, the company that managed the facility, is using deodorizers and misters to mitigate the smell from the rotting food.
“The fire may be knocked down, but this crisis is not over for the families, workers, students, and small businesses living with the odor, pests, truck traffic, and uncertainty left behind,” said Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado in a prepared statement Monday.
Firefighters battled for several days to knock down the fire that sporadically shrouded Boyle Heights and East L.A. neighborhoods in smoke after igniting on June 17. Large metal stacks of thawing food inside the warehouse prevented firefighters from safely entering the building to get to the flames directly, forcing them to tear part of it down so they could fight the flames with water cannons from the outside.
But the long work seemed far from over Monday, as city officials said they expected a virtual caravan of heavy haulers rolling down city streets to clean up the damaged warehouse, while other workers simultaneously were trying to keep hungry pests at bay.
The 85 million pounds of food, including meat and fish, is expected to be hauled to multiple landfills in Los Angeles, Ventura and Riverside counties.
In a statement Monday, Lineage Chief Executive Greg Lehmkuhl said crews were on the ground and staying “until things are back to normal.”
“Boyle Heights is not just where we operate,” Lehmkuhl said in the statement. “Lineage has been part of this neighborhood for over 20 years.”
But the company said it was unclear exactly how long the cleanup would take.
Lineage estimates it will require 5,000 truckloads, according to a statement from Mayor Karen Bass’ office.
“Environmental hazards from industrial disasters too often fall on communities like Boyle Heights,” Bass said in the statement. “Those responsible will be held accountable, and the City is working with an array of organizations to provide resources to the families and business owners who desperately need them.”
At a news conference Monday afternoon, Bass vowed a thorough investigation into the incident and accountability for the fire and its effects on residents.
Much of the cleanup work is being done by private companies contracted by Lineage, the building’s tenant. But in a pair of executive directives signed by Bass on Monday, city officials were also tasking the owner of the building, Chill Build, and the tenant with submitting a comprehensive cleanup plan to the city, requiring that they remove the rotting food within 45 days.
Bass said the directives would “supercharge this work” as well as get resources to residents affected by the fire.
One of the orders, Bass said during the news conference, could mobilize city-run mobile health and mental health stations to the area, expand air monitoring and create a long-term environmental monitoring program for Boyle Heights.
The other, she said, would require “aggressive cleaning deadlines” and ensure that the city can recover costs from eligible parties.
“There will be accountability, but there will also be immediate action,” Bass said.
A small Los Angeles Fire Department crew is expected to remain on scene to monitor the area while the cleanup continues. But Lineage has contracted a private fire company to continue spraying water into smoldering areas of the rubble when needed as crews work to remove the debris, according to the mayor’s office.
The Fire Department was set to hand control of the building back to Lineage on Monday, but Chief Jaime Moore said that an official handover would have to take place later this week because of ongoing efforts to eliminate hot spots in the warehouse.
Moore said that would not stall cleanup efforts at the site, which had already begun Sunday.
According to Bass’ office, the trucks making trips in and out of the area will avoid residential streets and use hauling routes that have already been established in an effort to minimize the effects on nearby neighborhoods.
Lineage also has contracted with Orkin and Signal Restoration Services to try to keep pests from being drawn to the spoiling food.
Cats USA, a Los Angeles city contractor, has been assigned to conduct a pest assessment in the area at the direction of Bass, according to the mayor’s statement, and is already working to place traps near the warehouse and in residential streets.
“Cats USA will monitor the traps three times a day and will adjust the frequency if needed,” the statement said.
To manage the odor, city officials say, Lineage is testing the use of chlorine dioxide as a deodorizer as food is removed and packed into trucks.
Lineage is also using misters inside the building to try to deodorize the food until it is removed from the site.
“Each truck will also undergo deodorization as it leaves the warehouse,” the statement read.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is testing and monitoring water quality multiple times a day as the cleanup effort continues, according to the statement. Current tests show that tap water in Boyle Heights is safe.