{"id":411997,"date":"2026-07-25T14:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T14:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411997\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T14:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T14:14:10","slug":"would-a-mandatory-evacuation-help-eastside-neighbors-of-the-lineage-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411997\/","title":{"rendered":"Would a mandatory evacuation help Eastside neighbors of the Lineage fire?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s been over a month since the Lineage cold storage warehouse erupted in flames<\/a>, and we haven\u2019t even finished the beginning of the end of the beginning stage of the cleanup.<\/p>\n

Crews are working nonstop to meet Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 mid-August deadline to clear out 85 million pounds of food that continues to rot in oppressive heat. The mayor\u2019s office and those of L.A. Councilmember Ysabel Jurado and L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis have joined local nonprofits and mutual aid groups in the herculean effort of distributing masks, water, air conditioners and air purifiers and hosting pop-up health clinics for all locals affected by the mess.<\/p>\n

You’re reading the Essential California newsletter <\/p>\n

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By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n

But no amount of handouts, Hefty bags and Windex can pretty up the scene right now around Lineage, as my colleague Salvador Hernandez described this week in vivid, vile detail.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are flies, rats and, if the wind shifts ever so slightly, a waft of thick, nauseating air,\u201d he wrote about the dense neighborhoods on Union Pacific Avenue near the ruins of the warehouse, which stands on Indiana Street right on the border between Boyle Heights in Los Angeles and unincorporated East Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Excuse me while I gag.<\/p>\n

An unusual request to help neighbors of the warehouse<\/p>\n

No wonder people affected by the fire showed up to this week\u2019s Board of Supervisors meeting to ask for a simple, if radical request: Declare a mandatory evacuation for the neighborhoods around the Lineage site \u2014 not just the Eastside but also parts of cities in southeast Los Angeles County \u2014 until all cleanup is complete.<\/p>\n

A mandatory evacuation notice not only would mean residents wouldn\u2019t have to bear the stenches and sounds currently disrupting their lives, but also would allow homeowners to file claims with their insurance company for costs such as food, housing and travel. The action would also allow all residents to get local, regional, state and federal agencies\u2019 help with the financial aftermath that households and businesses now must deal with \u2014 utility bills, loss of wages and revenue \u2014 for weeks, if not months. <\/p>\n

Alma Marquez thinks such a move isn\u2019t a far-fetched idea but a moral responsibility. She\u2019s the founder of Protect L.A.<\/a>, a coalition of residents, nonprofits and activists who aren\u2019t pleased one bit with the official response so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening right now is compounding trauma,\u201d said the urban planner by training, who hasn\u2019t slept in her Monterey Park home since a thick plume of smoke from the Lineage fire enveloped it in its early days. \u201cThere was eight days of smoke because of the fire, then all the smoldering, now all the pests \u2014 and we still don\u2019t know the effects from all that people have suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n

A mandatory evacuation notice \u201cprotects public safety, protects public health and it protects the poor,\u201d Marquez added, noting the working class makeup of the neighborhoods on Union Pacific. \u201cRight now, the poor have no options.\u201d<\/p>\n

What elected officials say about an evacuation notice<\/p>\n

Bass\u2019 office has already announced that Airbnb will offer $1 million in credits to affected residents. But for the moment there seems to be little political appetite for something as drastic as a mandatory evacuation notice.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Solis told Hernandez and me that only the city can call a mandatory evacuation because the Lineage fire happened within L.A. city limits. \u201cThat does not mean I\u2019m standing still,\u201d she said. Her staff joined a Department of Public Health team to talk with hundreds of affected households, and she said most wanted to remain in their homes \u201cwhile seeing the incident resolved as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jurado, meanwhile, in a statement said that an evacuation notice \u201cmay be warranted\u201d if things worsen. But without a \u201cclear plan\u201d on where and how to relocate the thousands of people possibly affected \u2014 addressing questions such as who would watch their homes and how financial losses for businesses would be covered \u2014 an evacuation order right now \u201ccould create further harm, fear, and displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protect L.A. is undeterred. It has been holding workshops at Resurrection Church in Boyle Heights to try to organize people on the matter \u2014 the most recent one attracted more than 80 people, Marquez said. Members are also holding weekly evening vigils at the parish to draw attention to this latest Eastside environmental catastrophe.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanning to keep people [near the Lineage disaster] is not a plan,\u201d Marquez said. \u201cPlanning to further endanger people\u2019s lives is not a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The week\u2019s biggest stories \"Los <\/a> <\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Crime, courts and policingLos Angeles homelessnessMayor Bass\u2019 problemsAnimals in the newsWhat else is going onMust-readOther meaty readsFor your downtime \"The <\/a> Going outStaying inL.A. Timeless<\/p>\n

A selection of the very best reads from The Times\u2019 143-year archive.<\/p>\n

Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n

Hailey Branson-Potts, staff reporter
Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been over a month since the Lineage cold storage warehouse erupted in flames, and we haven\u2019t even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,2302,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":["post-411997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california","tag-civic-revolt","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-days","tag-essential-california","tag-israel","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-may","tag-pandemic","tag-part","tag-president-biden","tag-red-county","tag-san-diego","tag-state","tag-time","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411997","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=411997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}