Boyle Heights was reaching a breaking point as a deadline passed to clean up of 88 million pounds of rotten food from the burned-down warehouse and residents begged for relief from the horrifying stench.
The city says Lineage failed to meet the deadline Friday, while the company says it should have more time. Residents say the end can’t come soon enough and that the cold storage industry behemoth has already worn out its welcome.
Martin Ramirez, who owns a repair shop next door to the warehouse, says he cares little whether the date was Friday or next week.
“All they want to do is to keep pushing the dates to appease people,” Ramirez said. “We don’t want them there anymore.”
Nearly two months after the fire was first ignited in the roof of the Lineage cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights, Ramirez said his business, a car repair and body shop, is still struggling. Clients have delayed or canceled work. Some customers have outright walked away because they can’t stand the stench of the rotting food that remains. Swaths of stubborn flies bother his mechanics as they work, and he’s had to redo paint jobs and clear coats tainted by the thick dust from the warehouse.
When he opened up the shop Friday morning, Ramirez said, he found larvae on the sidewalk and nearby trees.
“People don’t want to go here, they don’t want to be here,” he said in Spanish. “Well, none of us want to be here. All of this is very inconvenient.”
In missing the city-imposed deadline, Lineage could face legal action, fines, or liens against the property, according to a call for action from Mayor Karen Bass’ office.
But Lineage officials insist the company still has another week to complete the work. According to an online tracker provided by the company, about 94% of the food has been removed as of Friday morning.
Jeff Rivera, chief operating officer for Lineage, told The Times in an interview that the company was handed control of the building on July 7, and therefore the deadline is Aug. 20.
“There is a 45-day deadline that we’re running hard toward,” Rivera said. “In the [mayor’s] executive order, it states that the operation clock starts officially when we were handed the building.”
During an online town hall with residents Thursday, Bass said the deadline was Friday and it was clear, after one of her deputy mayors toured the facility that day, that to “no surprise to anyone, we know the work is not done.”
Rivera insists that in communication with the city, Lineage has been clear on when the countdown for its cleanup began, but he acknowledged the discrepancy on when the city expected the food to be completely removed.
“I think that was a gap that we should have aligned on earlier,” Rivera said.
Ahead of the deadline, Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado on Thursday said in a statement she was “disappointed and angry” that the company had not yet completed the cleanup, and called on the mayor to take action against Lineage as a consequence.
In a statement later that evening, Bass said she was instructing city attorneys to explore legal options against Lineage.
“At every turn, Lineage has failed to meet its responsibility to this community,” she said in a statement.
Even if the deadline for completing cleanup is Aug. 20, as Lineage claims, Rivera said, “It’s going to be close.”
“It’s going to be day by day,” he said. “It’s not easy. The last 3% is the hardest, and it’s a battle.”
According to city records, some of the work inside the warehouse began while city firefighters were still there, monitoring the blaze.
Documents reviewed by The Times also show that the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety notified Lineage the building was in violation and required all dead organic waste to be removed within 45 days. That letter was dated June 29.
In the weeks since the fire burned and cleanup began, Lineage has been slowly and consistently racking up fines tied to poor air quality and complaints from the community.
Last week, Lineage said it expected to spend $80 million to $100 million on the cleanup, including steps to mitigate the smell and the vermin drawn to the site and surrounding neighborhoods.
At least one resident has sued the company in connection with the incident, citing costs for air purifiers and utilities.
Earlier this week, students in the Los Angeles Unified School District returning to schools near the warehouse received face masks from teachers and volunteers for their first day back.
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