By admin 
BOYLE HEIGHTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is calling for greater accountability and a faster cleanup effort following the warehouse fire that destroyed a cold storage facility in Boyle Heights.
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In a letter sent Saturday, Bass and other city and county leaders urged Lineage Logistics, the company that operates the facility, to commit to helping people affected by the fire.
According to the letter, millions of pounds of rotting food remain inside the warehouse. Bass wrote that the resulting odor has made conditions in the surrounding area “unbearable.”
The letter calls on the company to help fund temporary housing for impacted residents and provide support for health centers and community organizations serving the area.
You can read the full letter below:
City and county leaders also requested a concrete timeline for the removal of the rotting food from the destroyed facility.
Bass has already signed an executive order requiring that the cleanup be completed within 45 days.
Meantime, Lineage says the group that owns the solar panels on the roof, Altus Power, demanded they stop demolition of the site.
However, the city says it is not asking Lineage to demolish any portion of the building related to the fire investigation, and instead asks that the food waste be removed as quickly as possible.
The president and CEO of the company, Greg Lehmkuhl, sent a letter to Bass and County Supervisor Hilda Solis, raising concerns about the stoppage and asking local officials to intervene and allow demolition to proceed.
It comes after Bass issued the executive orders.
“We get headaches. We feel like vomiting. So I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know if they’re working on it,” said Jose Leyva, a Boyle Heights resident.
According to the L.A. Times, a spokesperson for Altus said multiple parties joined in asking Lineage to “appropriately preserve and not destroy relevant evidence during its site remediations.”
Lineage says the work it planned to begin on Friday morning would not affect the fire investigation and is crucial to ensure there are no more flare-ups. Lineage also said the Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed that it does not require the company to halt the work.
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“Lineage was prepared and permitted to begin demolition work on the Los Palos site this morning, consistent with your Emergency Executive Orders and County Public Health Directive of June 29,” Lehmkuhl wrote. “Our work is staged and debris is pre-treated and ready to move. LAFD’s investigators have confirmed they do not require us to halt this work. Demolition is required to address flare-ups and extinguish the fire once and for all.”
SEE ALSO: ER visits spiked around Boyle Heights during warehouse fire, public health data shows
Containers are staged at the warehouse site, and debris is pre-treated and pre-loaded, ready to move to landfills when they open on Monday morning, according to Lineage. The company said it is committed to working through the holiday weekend.
“Altus has offered no comparable plan and has not demonstrated any of the same sense of urgency. On behalf of everyone in the impacted communities, we ask you to act immediately. Hold Altus and any other party seeking to delay cleanup and fire prevention at the site to the same standard of accountability you have applied to Lineage. Direct them to stand down and allow remediation to proceed,” Lehmkuhl wrote. “The Boyle Heights community cannot afford to have its community held hostage by a party whose equipment is suspected of starting this fire.”
Lineage believes the fire started while Altus Power contractors were conducting testing on a rooftop solar array. Altus Power previously disputed that conclusion.
The mayor’s office sent a response to Lineage’s letter, noting that the city has not asked the company to demolish any portion of the building that could be relevant to the fire investigation, and is instead asking Lineage to take measures to eliminate fire flare-ups and remove food waste as quickly as possible.
“No court order is preventing you from doing this, and it is critical that you stay laser focused on clearing out your warehouse of your stored food waste and debris since it is that food decomposition that is causing the greatest ongoing harm to our adjacent communities,” Bass’s office wrote in its response.
“I am calling on Lineage, Altus, the property owner, and every involved party to cooperate immediately with the City, County, LAFD, Public Health, and regulatory agencies,” Councilmember Ysabel Jurado issued in a statement. “If there are legitimate evidence-preservation concerns, they must be addressed through a clear, written protocol that allows investigators to do their work without delaying urgent remediation. But no private party should be allowed to use process, finger-pointing, or liability disputes as an excuse to slow down cleanup that the community urgently needs.”
Eyewitness News reached out to Altus Power regarding the cleanup stoppage and is waiting to hear back.
The warehouse fire broke out on June 17 and burned for several days, blanketing parts of Boyle Heights with thick clouds of toxic smoke and causing health issues for many.
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