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Residents demand evacuation and relief as supervisors press Lineage for cleanup plan
Summary
Following the Lineage cold‑storage warehouse fire in Boyle Heights/East Los Angeles, the board pressed the responsible party for immediate funding and a detailed remediation plan while AQMD and Public Health reported monitoring results and residents urged mandatory evacuations and temporary relocation.
The Board of Supervisors on July 7 pressed the responsible party for the Lineage warehouse fire to provide an accelerated remediation and community mitigation plan, and directed departments to sustain community response centers while air monitoring and debris removal proceed.
County emergency management officials briefed supervisors on the response. Kevin McGowan, director of the Office of Emergency Management, said operations had resumed after a brief pause and an incident management team hired by the facility’s contractor was coordinating with county agencies on debris removal and plans that must be preapproved by regulatory agencies.
Jason Lowe of the South Coast Air Quality Management District said contractor data showed air toxics in the community were broadly consistent with historical monitoring, but odor‑producing compounds were elevated in places — some odor markers were up to 25 times higher than background in qualitative checks. “We are taking measurements and reviewing contractor data daily and conducting independent mobile monitoring,” Lowe said.
Barbara Ferrer, director of the Department of Public Health, said odors have produced nausea, nosebleeds and throat and eye irritation for residents, and that the health department has directed the operator to implement a community mitigation plan that includes relocation when necessary. “For some residents, the solution is temporary relocation,” Ferrer said. “The responsible party must take full responsibility for mitigation.”
Residents and community groups testified one after another that odors and health symptoms persist and asked the board for mandatory evacuations, declarations that homes are temporarily uninhabitable, free remediation for homes and businesses, multilingual notices, and an expedited claims process. Jerry Guzman said residents had fronted evacuation expenses and asked the board to require the responsible party to cover immediate relocation and to publish a daily manifest of material removals and disposal destinations.
Public Works reported it is reviewing the responsible party’s waste management and haul‑route plans, checking storm‑drain protections and sampling downstream water quality; early river testing found low pH and oxygen levels where fish kills were observed, and more analysis is pending.
The board directed a five‑signature letter requesting that the responsible party respond within 48 hours with commitments for: continued community response centers, temporary housing and pet support, no‑cost smoke/toxin remediation for residences and businesses, funding for county health services involved in response, a multilingual hotline and claims center, a material removal schedule and daily manifests, odor and vector control, runoff management and real‑time air quality monitoring published daily by AQMD.
What’s next: County staff will press the responsible party for the requested written commitments, continue monitoring and operate community resource sites; County Counsel will assess recovery of county costs when remediation and monitoring are complete.
