Prologis did not respond to a request to comment. Day to Day and Virgin Scent could not be reached.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Carson Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes said the verdict affirms that impacts to residents \u201cwere real and that accountability matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile no verdict can undo the harm experienced by affected families, this outcome sends an important message: communities should not bear the costs of industrial misconduct,\u201d Davis-Holmes stated. \u201cIndustry must be responsible for the consequences of its actions, and residents should not be left to pay the price for environmental failures.\u201d<\/p>\n
The September 2021 fire began at a distribution center on Avalon Boulevard and \u201cengulfed an entire city block within hours,\u201d according to the lawsuit. Hundreds of firefighters were dispatched to Carson and spent two days battling the blaze as it burned through stacks of pallets and cardboard boxes, towering as high as 15 feet, with \u201chighly flammable ethanol-based hand sanitizer\u201d inside.<\/p>\n
Just days later, the Food and Drug Administration found\u00a0a hand sanitizer<\/a> made by the same company<\/a> contained \u201cunacceptable levels of benzene, acetaldehyde and acetal contaminants\u201d and urged consumers not to use the product as both benzene and acetaldehyde may cause cancer.<\/p>\n The Carson residents\u2019 lawsuit alleges the companies and property owners failed to promptly and properly deal with the \u201csoggy, charred debris\u201d left behind. As a result, \u201cun-combusted alcohols\u201d entered storm drains and discharged into the Dominguez Channel, a 15.7 mile-long stream that stretches through Hawthorne, Carson and Torrance before emptying into the San Pedro Bay.<\/p>\n As the mixture sat in the channel\u2019s stagnant water, it dissolved oxygen and rapidly killed off vegetation, causing an elevated level of hydrogen sulfide gas, according court filings. The South Coast Air Quality Management District determined the hydrogen sulfide reached a level 230 times higher than the state nuisance standards.<\/p>\n A foul odor generated by the gas wafted throughout the South Bay for more than 10 weeks<\/a> while the county, city leaders and the local air quality management district tried to determine its origins. Investigators originally pinned the smell on the dead vegetation, before concluding the fire\u2019s runoff had served as the catalyst.<\/p>\n Los Angeles County spent at least $54 million<\/a> \u2014 with estimates as high as $143 million \u2014 to eliminate the stench. The county offered reimbursements<\/a> to residents for air filters, purifiers and temporary relocation.<\/a><\/p>\n The county sued the property owners and tenants<\/a> in an attempt to recover its costs in January 2022. That case<\/a> is still pending.<\/p>\n Separately, a judge in December 2025 imposed more than $10 million in penalties<\/a> against Day to Day Imports and Virgin Scent for failing to obtain required stormwater permits and for the pollutant discharge. Prologis and Liberty Property also were found liable<\/a>, but were not required to pay a penalty because they had already spent $10 million on the site cleanup<\/a>, according to court filings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A jury has awarded $8.8 million to two dozen Carson residents exposed to hydrogen sulfide gas by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,8,16844,1312,643,33071,2307,23,131,133,132,47,137,100,4065,1439,200,7612,136,1270],"class_list":["post-171262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-carson","tag-courts","tag-environment","tag-gardena","tag-hawthorne","tag-local-news","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-news","tag-palos-verdes-peninsula","tag-san-pedro","tag-south-bay","tag-south-beaches","tag-top-stories","tag-torrance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770692549_127_TDB-L-CARSON-1104-7.jpg\")
The Dominguez Channel flowing through Carson, Calif. as levels of wretched-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas that have plagued south Los Angeles County communities for weeks are declining as authorities use various mitigation methods in a flood control channel. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer)<\/p>\n