Lineage Logistics announced Saturday it has completed the full cleanup of food waste at its cold storage facility in Boyle Heights more than two months after a fire erupted and left millions of pounds of food spoiling inside, impacting nearby neighborhoods.
A fire broke out on the roof of the 491,000-square-foot warehouse located at 1400 S. Los Palos Street on June 17 and burned for days, prompting a massive cleanup effort.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District gave the company a Sept. 5 deadline to finish removing debris, power-washing and disinfecting Freezer 1. It comes exactly one week after Lineage completed the removal of bulk food waste last Saturday.
“In less than two months, the Company removed more than 89 million pounds of food waste, safely demolished the fire-damaged structure, and completed full power washing and disinfection under the supervision of more than 20 local, state, and federal agencies, and in accordance with the AQMD order,” Lineage said in a news release.
The South Coast AQMD said it has received more than 4,900 complaints about rotten, sour and garbage-like scents from the area near the warehouse since July 12, but the number of complaints dropped significantly after all bulk food waste was removed. Air quality regulators issued 39 notices of violations from June 12 through Aug. 28, the agency said.
Inspectors are expected to continue visiting the site until the South Coast AQMD determines that “all odor mitigation efforts have been completed or are no longer required.”
According to Lineage, the clean-up and remediation efforts cost more than $100 million.
Lineage, the buildings’ tenant-operator, leases the rooftop to a third-party solar panel company that installed a solar array on top of the structure. The company has said it believes the fire started when the subcontractors were working on the solar panels.