South Coast AQMD Hearing Board held a public hearing on Wednesday to consider whether it should “ legally require Lineage to address the problems” stemming from the warehouse fire in Boyle Heights.
The hearing was held at the AQMD headquarters in Diamond Bar. Residents who attended shared their concerns and expressed how the June 17th fire has impacted them.
“Boyle Heights and the surrounding communities continue to live with nauseating odors, swarms of flies, and the threat of vermin resulting from the decomposition of approximately 85 million pounds of food that was stored at the facility,” one resident said.
“It reeks. I feel a sensation to throw up, and that's how bad it is,” another resident said.
There was another resident who said there was “clear evidence that Lineage's measures have been inadequate.”
“Residents should not have to file complaint after complaint to force a multi-billion dollar corporation to contain the harm that it created,” they said.
One woman said she’s concerned about “the odors and the quality of the air in my neighborhood.”
“Because of the long-term emotional, mental, and physical health consequences, this creates premature health conditions and premature death,” she said.
One man shared how he had been personally impacted by the fire.
“I've experienced headaches from the plumes of smoke that filled the air and whatever toxins might have been in the smoke,” he said. “In the days after the fire, I also personally scrambled to get an air purifier, and thankfully we had mutual aid efforts to give me an air purifier, but the government was moving too slowly for my need. On top of that, like folks have expressed, the heat is really hard to bear because we have to have ACs off, so toxins don't enter our homes and our utility bills have also come up higher because we've had to have the air purifiers running constantly.”
Many people are also demanding that Lineage be banned from rebuilding. As of now, the L.A. City Council put that process on hold.
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