A terrible smell from millions of pounds of rotting food is making people sick in Los Angeles after a huge warehouse fire.
A terrible, heavy smell of rotting food is filling the air and making life miserable for thousands of people living near a large food storage building in Los Angeles, California. The strong odor began spreading through the neighborhood of Boyle Heights after a massive fire destroyed the Lineage cold-storage facility, leaving roughly 80 million pounds of frozen meat, fish, and vegetables sitting in the hot sun without any electricity or cooling. Residents say the smell of rotting pig feet, crab, and beef has become so bad that they cannot open their windows or breathe fresh air outside.
The problem started in mid-June when a fire broke out on the roof of the giant 500,000-square-foot building and burned for over a week. Firefighters sprayed millions of gallons of water to put out the blaze, but the huge fire destroyed the power system and wrecked the roof. Without cold air to preserve the massive mountain of stored food, the frozen products quickly thawed and began to decay under the hot summer sun.
Neighbors living right next to the burnt building describe the air as thick, sour, and unlivable. Kelvin Vasquez, a resident who lives just one block away from the building, explained how bad the stench is, saying that “it’s pretty much something like a dead body… like a dead animal.” Other families living in the area report suffering from frequent headaches, sore throats, dizziness, and heavy nausea as swarms of flies and rats gather around the decaying waste.
City health officials and air quality inspectors have issued multiple safety citations against the company that operates the building, demanding that they spray chemical odor neutralizers, cover waste trucks, and clear out the trash immediately. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass publicly criticized the company for trying to apply for building repair permits before removing the rotting waste, stating that “I can’t believe they would even think about starting the rebuilding process while they haven’t cleaned up the mess they’ve created.” The mayor called the company’s delay “a slap in the face to the families that are forced to live with the consequences of an irresponsible corporation’s actions every single day.”
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In response to the growing community anger, a spokesperson for Lineage Logistics stated that “our top priority right now is completing the cleanup as quickly and safely as possible.” The company explained that its workers and cleanup teams are using specialized heavy equipment to load ton after ton of ruined food into sealed trucks so it can be hauled away to safe disposal sites.
Local officials say it could still take weeks to clear away every bit of the spoiled food and clean up the surrounding streets. In the meantime, community health teams are handing out protective face masks to local families and forcing the company to pay daily fines until the air becomes clean and safe to breathe again.
