Boyle Heights warehouse company says its being unfairly scapegoated for fire and stench
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Set us as preferred The company that owns the vast cold storage warehouse scorched in a June blaze that plagued neighbors in Boyle Heights with smoke and stink said it doesn’t deserve the pummeling it got for how it contained the catastrophe.The company, Lineage Logistics, told The Times it didn’t cause the fire and went above and beyond to put it out and speed the cleanup of truckloads of rotting food that attracted rats and flies.Lineage has been a pariah in the community, with residents and Los Angeles officials speaking out after the company missed the city’s 45-day deadline to remove the waste.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District received more than 4,900 odor complaints, “reporting persistent rotten, sour and garbage-like odors,” and issued the company 38 violation notices for public nuisance.The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health has opened inspections with both Lineage and Pearce related to the fire, the agency confirmed soon after the blaze.The Los Angeles Fire Department is investigating the cause of the fire.Some residents called for the company to leave.
Mayor Karen Bass has said the company had “run out its welcome.” Lineage filed a lawsuit last week, saying the company that operated a solar array on the building’s roof is to blame for the fire.Fixing the mess has been the company’s top priority since the fire started June 17, Lineage Chief Executive Greg Lehmkuhl told the Los Angeles Times in an exclusive interview.
“We were focused on doing the right things; we’ve become the convenient scapegoats,” he said.“We feel like we’ve been misrepresented, given the efforts that we’ve done and how much we’ve tried to work with every constituent to do the right thing in a really, really tough situation that we didn’t cause.” Michigan-based Lineage is one ...