\n There was no escaping the black pollution that choked the neighborhood then, and no reprieve now, even five weeks after the fire was extinguished. The smell of burning plastic has been replaced by something else: the pungent odor of rotting food, and everything that comes with it.\n <\/p>\n
\n The inescapable stench \u2013 equal parts sour and cloying \u2013 has settled like a thick haze over the neighborhood, baked by the Southern California heat.\n <\/p>\n
\n Boyle Heights locals say the stink is making them physically sick, and that swarms of flies and giant rats have followed the noxious odor into their neighborhood.\n <\/p>\n
\n When it went up in flames in mid-June, the warehouse contained 88 million pounds of frozen food, some of which burned in the blaze and some liquified. That amount of waste would fill roughly 440,000 curbside trash bins. Lined up wheel-to-wheel, they would stretch more than 200 miles, roughly the distance between Washington, DC and New York City.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Now, cleanup crews are racing against the clock to remove what the fire left behind, including waste so toxic it needs to be sealed in hazmat containers. The City of Los Angeles has directed Lineage Logistics, the largest owner of cold-storage facilities in the world and operator of the repository, to clear the waste by August 13 \u2014 a timeline one company executive called \u201cvery aggressive\u201d at a town hall last month.\n <\/p>\n
\n When the wind shifts, the smells from the warehouse waft miles away, even weeks after the fire was extinguished.\n <\/p>\n
\n But in Boyle Heights, the putrid scent of fermented food is a fetid constant. It lingers in the air and coats the mouth. 90% of residents in the predominantly Latino neighborhood<\/a> said they noticed constant odors in a recently released county public health survey.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n In an effort to stymie the foul smell, part of the facility is wrapped in plastic sheeting while large fans spray odor-control mist around the warehouse. The food waste is sprayed with bleach, deodorizer and water before it\u2019s covered and hauled to a landfill in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles.\n <\/p>\n \n The near-tangible odor has infiltrated every corner of Alicia Naranjo\u2019s home, which is six houses down from the warehouse. At first, the smell permeated the bedrooms, bringing with it sleepless nights. Then came anxiety and trouble breathing, followed by headaches, congestion, coughing and throat pain, she said in a raspy voice she attributes to the pollution in the air.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAnd then,\u201d her sister Elsa Naranjo chimed in, \u201cwe got infested with rats.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cYou see them jumping around from the walls,\u201d she said. \u201cOutside our house, in our property.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Rat traps, black plastic boxes with holes in the side, can be seen almost every ten feet along the ground, usually sitting underneath a hanging fly trap filled with dark clusters of dead and drowning flies.\n <\/p>\n \n There\u2019s one right outside Lisset Navarrete\u2019s house, but she\u2019s not convinced they\u2019re effective for one main reason: the rats she\u2019s seen are bigger than the traps laid for them.\n <\/p>\n \n Navarrete said her physical symptoms began with pressure on her chest that moved to her stomach. She said the rotting scent permeates so much of daily life she loses her appetite. Her mother-in-law also fell ill while waiting in line at a nearby clinic, she said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cShe just started throwing up, feeling dizzy,\u201d Navarrete said, as she swatted a fly off her arm. \u201cIt\u2019s just catching up to us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Her family can\u2019t turn on the air conditioning without it sucking in the odor, but on a 90-degree day, the aggressive Los Angeles sun only serves to thicken the stench enveloping the neighborhood.\n <\/p>\n \n Lineage has helped to distribute almost 600 air purifiers and over 650 air conditioning units to households in the immediate neighborhood, a spokesperson told CNN. The company has also offered assistance for temporary relocation, utility bills and pest-control supplies.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cCommunity support efforts to date total more than $3.3 million,\u201d the spokesperson said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n \n The City of Los Angeles has also pitched in to relief efforts, with Mayor Karen Bass declaring a state of emergency<\/a> and sending mobile health care clinics to the neighborhood.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cNo company chooses to experience a catastrophic fire. But every company chooses how it responds,\u201d Bass said in an open letter to shareholders. \u201cUnfortunately, Lineage\u2019s response has fallen short.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The smell of rotting food follows Juan Canil like a second shadow. Even when he leaves his home in Boyle Heights, it\u2019s waiting for him at his auto shop located directly across from the Lineage warehouse.\n <\/p>\n \n He described the same symptoms as the others: headaches, nausea, discomfort. But the stench is also seeping into his pocketbook. The strong smell and remediation work has continued to stall business for the auto shop owner.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSince the street is closed, I\u2019ve lost a lot of work,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of money.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n As of Thursday, over 4,200 complaints about the odor have been reported to the air pollution regulatory agency, South Coast Air Quality Management District. The agency issued Lineage public nuisance violations for 25 days in a row.\n <\/p>\n![\"Residents](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/gettyimages-2283004396-1.jpg\")
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