Crews appeared on Sunday to have begun the cleanup process of a Boyle Heights cold food storage facility that burned nearly two weeks ago and triggered shelter-in-place orders during the peak of its fire.
Aerial footage from NewsChopper4 captured workers on site of the Lineage warehouse facility on South Los Palos Street using tools and heavy machinery to clean debris at the site. Just under two weeks ago, a fire broke out at the warehouse, sending a thick plume of smoke over surrounding communities and concerning nearby residents.
The blaze was extinguished on June 24 after a roughly weeklong firefight. The focus now remains on getting rid of the 85 million pounds of food that was stored at the facility.
Foul odors coming from the spoiled food were reported by Boyle Heights residents recently.
“During the night it’s hard to sleep. We wake up with a headache, with severe something in your chest,” Roger Atallah, who lives one block away from the facility, told NBC Los Angeles. “It’s like plastic. You feel like you are not breathing oxygen.”
City leaders had previously expressed concern about a potential biohazard.
“I wouldn’t say it’s potentially dangerous; it would be unpleasant,” Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore said on June 20. “It would be a horrible odor, but what we’re looking at is what those gases would produce or create. We’ve already mitigated the hazardous materials portion by removing the ammonia and other chemicals that were used as refrigerants … now, it’s really what’s going to happen when this food starts decomposing?”
To further give the public a better understanding of the biohazard concern, Bass likened the situation in Boyle Heights to when food rots during a power outage.
“The gas that emits, that’s the biohazard that we’re worried about,” she said.
The cause of the fire remains unclear, though Lineage speculated that subcontractors working on the roof’s solar panels may have inadvertently started the fire. The company said a third-party solar company is in charge of maintaining the roof.
Lineage has said in a statement that it hired Signal Restoration Services for cleanup services. It’s unclear approximately how long the cleanup process will take.
Also on Sunday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced the opening of a community resource center at Lou Costello Rec Center, located at 3141 East Olympic Boulevard. The mayor said some of the resources include air purifiers, food and access to city and county services.
The county recently opened a resource center at the East Los Angeles Library, offering nonperishable food, water, health resources and support for impacted families and businesses. The center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through July 4.
“We want to make sure they are aware that we are here for them, that we have the resources ready to provide the help they are needing at this time,” Mariela Balam with the county’s Office of Emergency Management said.
Officials say the biggest request so far has been air purifiers, as people look for relief from the lingering odors.