A new report by Caltrans’ inspector general partly blames the agency for the fire under the 10 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles that forced officials to shut down the traffic lanes for weeks and cost $33 million to fix.
“Caltrans could have—and should have—done more to make this property safer for the motoring public who traveled above it,” the report read. “Although we do not believe Caltrans was directly responsible for the November 2023 fire, it nevertheless could have played a larger role in its prevention.”
In the report, Inspector General Bryan Beyer and Chief Deputy Diana Antony wrote that Caltrans did not perform the “required annual inspections of the property nor did it fully document inspection-related activity in its filing system.” The agency was also accused of failing to correct a variety of “potential lease violations” and also failed to do anything when there were previous “warning signs.” The warning signs mentioned in the report included the I-85 bridge collapse in Atlanta, Georgia in 2017 and the fire close to Lawrence Airspace in 2022.
On Nov. 11, 2023, a fire was reported in the 1700 block of East 14th St., two blocks west of Alameda St. at 12:22 a.m., according to the LAFD spokesperson Margaret Stewart.
Stewart said the fire started in a downtown pallet yard and spread to another located between Lawrence and Elwood streets while consuming a fire engine. Both yards were engulfed in flames by 2:33 a.m. Firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to three commercial buildings that were nearby.
After the fire, Gov. Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency. As a result of the fire, the freeway was closed in both directions between Alameda St. and Santa Fe Ave. There were also closures that affected connectors to I-5 and the 1010 and 60 freeways.
During a press conference on Nov. 13, Gov. Newsom announced that a preliminary investigation into the fire indicated that it was started with "malice intent." Sources told KNX News that cameras in the area captured activity before the fire took place; however, there were no identifiable faces. No arrests were made.
The freeway reopened on Nov. 20. While some were happy that the freeway opened, many were concerned by how quickly it reopened. One woman told KNX News’ Jon Baird at the time that she was planning to stick with the surface streets.
“I’ll skip the freeway,” she said.
You can view the inspector general’s report here.
KNX News has reached out to Caltrans for further comment.
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