Residents of a Los Angeles neighborhood say that almost two months after a warehouse fire, an unbearable smell is lingering. After the June 17 fire gutted a massive cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights, about 85 million pounds of meat and seafood inside have been left to rot, residents say—and they're living with the fallout, the BBC reports. Locals describe an overpowering stench, relentless flies, and rats so big they don't fit in standard traps.
A city-commissioned inspection warned that the combination of decomposing food and summer heat could turbocharge fly breeding and pose health risks. Lineage, the warehouse operator, says roughly 80% of the waste is now gone and that it expects to finish removing bulk food next week at a cost of up to $100 million. But Los Angeles officials say the company's response has fallen short. They have been fining the company $500 a day over "unsanitary and nuisance" conditions.
Mayor Karen Bass—facing residents' anger over what they see as slow, opaque action—has ordered more resources into the neighborhood and paused any rebuilding plans for the facility until the area is deemed safe. At an air quality district board hearing last week, 16-year-old high school senior Beth Hernandez said every resident she had spoken to over the summer had reported health issues or other negative impacts, the Los Angeles Times reports. "We deserve clean air and a safe place to live," she said. "We aren't asking Lineage to turn our community into the next Beverly Hills. We're asking them to stop slowly killing us for an extra buck."
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
