Boyle Heights residents can breathe a bit easier, as the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) confirmed Saturday that millions of pounds of decaying food have been cleared from the Lineage Logistics facility. This marks a significant milestone in a cleanup process that has dragged on for over two months since the warehouse fire was extinguished in late June.
The cleanup focused on the building's western freezer, which, despite being unaffected by the fire itself, had held bulk amounts of mostly meat and seafood. The eastern freezer, largely destroyed in the blaze, had been cleared and sanitized earlier. The AQMD sent an enforcement team to inspect the site on Saturday, and now a seven-day process begins to remove remaining debris and power-wash and disinfect the cavernous freezer.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado noted that Lineage had well exceeded the city's August 14 deadline for food waste removal. In a Saturday news release, Jurado stated that while the completion was "overdue progress" it was "not a completed cleanup" and did not "erase two months of odors, pests, and disruption." The city had given Lineage 45 days, making Saturday day 60 on their timeline.
Lineage, for its part, contested the city's original deadline, arguing they could not start cleanup until July 7, which would have pushed their 45-day window to an August 20 deadline—a date they also missed. The company stated Saturday that the food removal was "the result of hundreds of workers on site every day," estimating a total cleanup cost of over $100 million. They claimed, "No cleanup of this scale and speed has been executed before."
Local residents have certainly felt the impact, with the AQMD receiving over 4,900 odor complaints reporting "persistent rotten, sour and garbage-like odors." The agency has issued 38 violation notices to Lineage for public nuisance. Furthermore, three neighborhood community groups filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue Lineage in federal court on Friday, accusing the company of not disclosing all chemicals emitted during the fire, potentially posing health risks.
During the upcoming sanitation process, air quality regulators will require Lineage to maintain negative air pressure and keep air pollution equipment running to help mitigate any lingering fumes.
