The city of Los Angeles formulated a plan and has begun hauling out millions of pounds of rotting food from a burned cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights, where crews are putting in place measures to mitigate the smell of pests that the work might attract.
Traps were placed outside the damaged warehouse and along neighboring residential streets, and city officials said Lineage, the company that managed the facility, is using deodorizers and misters to manage the smell from the rotting food.
“The fire may be knocked down, but this crisis is not over for the families, workers, students, and small businesses living with the odor, pests, truck traffic, and uncertainty left behind,” said Los Angeles Councilmember Ysabel Jurado in a prepared statement Monday.
Firefighters battled for several days to knock down the fire that sporadically shrouded Boyle Heights and East L.A. neighborhoods in smoke after it ignited on June 17. Large metal stacks of thawing food inside the warehouse prevented firefighters from safely entering the building to get to the flames directly, forcing them to tear down part of the building so they could fight the flames with water cannons from the outside.
But the long work seemed far from over Monday, as city officials said they expected a virtual caravan of heavy haulers rolling down city streets to clean up the damaged warehouse , while other workers simultaneously try to keep smells from the site and hungry pests at bay.
The 85 million pounds of food, including meat and fish, is expected to be hauled to multiple landfills in Los Angeles, Ventura and Riverside counties.
Lineage estimates it will require 5,000 truck loads, according to a statement from Mayor Karen Bass’ office.
“Environmental hazards from industrial disasters too often fall on communities like Boyle Heights,” Bass said in the statement. “Those responsible will be held accountable, and the City is working with an array of organizations to provide resources to the families and business owners who desperately need them.”
A small Los Angeles Fire Department crew is expected to remain on scene to monitor the area in case things go wrong. But Lineage has contracted a private fire company to continue flowing water into smoldering areas of the rubble when needed as crews work to remove the debris, according to the mayor’s office.
According to Bass’ office, the trucks making trips in and out of the area will avoid residential streets and travel along hauling routes that have already been established in an effort to minimize impact to neighborhoods nearby.
Lineage has also contracted with Orkin and Signal Restoration services to manage the possibility of pests being drawn to the rotting food.
Cats USA, a Los Angeles city contractor, has also been assigned to conduct a pest assessment in the area at the direction of Bass, according to the statement, and already working to place traps near the warehouse and in residential streets.
“Cats USA will monitor the traps three times a day and will adjust the frequency if needed,” according to the statement.
To manage the odor, city officials said Lineage is testing the use of chlorine dioxide as a deodorizer as food is removed and packed into trucks.
Lineage is also using misters inside the building to try to deodorize the food until it is removed from the site.
“Each truck will also undergo deodorization as it leaves the warehouse,” the statement read.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is also testing and monitoring water quality multiple times a day as the clean up effort continues, according to the statement. Current tests show that tap water in Boyle Heights is safe.
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