Crews in Boyle Heights continued working Thursday to haul away millions of pounds of rotting food in hopes of returning the fire-stricken cold-storage facility and the surrounding neighborhood to normal. <\/p>\n
But a block away, a group of about 50 residents and community organizers \u2014 who endured days of dark smoke and, now, putrid smells \u2014 say they don\u2019t want things to go back to the way they were before the fire erupted at the Lineage-operated refrigerated warehouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard for us to be living like this,\u201d said Alma Lagunas, a resident and community organizer. Lineage \u201cneeds to clean up and never [come] back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind her, the crowd chanted in Spanish, \u201cQue se vayan!\u201d (\u201cThey should go!\u201d)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how long cleanup efforts will take in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, where large warehouses and other industrial buildings neighbor residential homes. Lineage did not immediately respond to inquiries Thursday. <\/p>\n
At the rally on the corner of La Puerta Street and Olympic Boulevard, residents said they battled thick smoke after the fire ignited on June 17<\/a>. Now they say the stench from the 85 million pounds of now-rotting food that was stored inside the refrigeration warehouse is forcing them and their children to remain indoors.<\/p>\n \u201cMy boys like sports, and they can\u2019t be outside,\u201d Lagunas said. <\/p>\n Soledad Martinez, a 77-year-old resident who has lived in the neighborhood for 45 years, said the fumes and uncertainty had made life in her neighborhood unbearable. <\/p>\n She lives about four blocks away from the Lineage warehouse and says the odor is, at times, like burning chicken and feathers. Other times, it\u2019s so strong it\u2019s as if she stuck her head inside an old trash can that\u2019s never been cleaned. <\/p>\n \u201cIn all the years I\u2019ve lived here, I\u2019ve never seen something so awful,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cMy question is, when will this be over? We can\u2019t live like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Contractors at the massive Lineage warehouse on Thursday had already placed fans and misters around the burned remains of the building, which had its walls torn down so firefighters could spray water into the structure. <\/p>\n Sagging containers and bags filled with food sat inside on metal racks. Contractors could be seen putting up long white coverings in place of the missing walls.<\/p>\n In a previous statement, Lineage estimated there were about 5,000 truckloads of rotting food to be removed from inside. How long it would take to do so was unclear.<\/p>\n