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Committee delays Rancho LPG safety report, asks LAFD for comprehensive risk review
Summary
After public concern following recent fires, the Committee on Public Safety asked the Los Angeles Fire Department for a more comprehensive analysis of safety risks at the Rancho LPG facility in San Pedro and voted to schedule the item for a later date.
The Committee on Public Safety voted on March 5 to keep the Los Angeles Fire Department’s report on Rancho LPG in San Pedro in committee and requested a more comprehensive risk and mitigation analysis before taking final action.
Captain Cover Brown of the Los Angeles Fire Department presented the department’s compliance and inspection programs for hazardous-material facilities and described Rancho LPG’s regulatory regime. Brown said Rancho LPG is overseen under multiple state and local programs intended to minimize accidental releases and protect employees, residents and the environment.
“Rancho LPG is regulated under three strict programs,” Brown said, noting the facility files inventories and operates under California’s accidental-release-prevention framework. Brown and other LAFD presenters described inspection frequencies: CUPA/CalARP inspections on a three-year cycle and LAFD district inspections conducted annually, with CalARP compliance audits about every 18 months.
Members of the committee and public commenters raised concerns about the facility’s age, proximity to residences and schools, historical inspection violations, and whether compliance status reflects current codes or legacy, preexisting conditions. Committee members said the written report filed with the committee did not answer several questions made more urgent by recent fires and public concern.
LAFD staff said their city records show no recorded violations in the last five years in the materials provided to the committee, and that when minor violations are found they are typically corrected within 30 days. The department described escalation procedures: repeated or uncorrected violations can be upgraded to higher enforcement classes, administrative fines and, in some cases, civil or criminal enforcement.
Committee members asked staff to return with additional materials, including a more comprehensive mitigation plan, a review of historical violations and corrections over decades (the facility was described in the report as constructed in 1973), and clarification about whether the facility is legally conforming or in a nonconforming/“grandfathered” status under current land-use and fire-code standards. Members also asked staff to pursue coordination with city planning and to unfreeze two LAFD positions that were listed in the report as needed to continue oversight work.
After asking for those items, the committee voted to schedule the item for a future meeting rather than accept the report as final.
