AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
A fire at a food storage warehouse in Los Angeles burned for more than a week in June. An estimated 85 million pounds of frozen food, including bread, poultry, pork and beef were stored there. Now, nearly two months later, the LA neighborhood of Boyle Heights is living through another plague of horrible smells and rotten food, along with flies and rats. And neighbors are worried about the pollutants they’ve inhaled since the fire. Boyle Heights resident and business owner Christian Llamas joins us now. Thank you for being here.
CHRISTIAN LLAMAS: Thank you very much for inviting me.
RASCOE: Let’s start with the fire. What was it like for you?
LLAMAS: Well, I was here that day, and I call – I was about one of the first people to call 911. I have a video that I took recording just the initial fire. I didn’t expect that it was going to go for a week nonstop. I was not expecting it to go this far.
RASCOE: Can you briefly tell us, like, what are your businesses, and how have they been affected by this fire?
LLAMAS: Well, I have two businesses. One is Sakura Hana hibachi. The restaurant has – flow has stopped because they blocked the street for a while. And the other business is – it’s a food truck manufacturer, which now the rigs are cleaning it, and they’re stopping my normal traffic to stop by for repairs, buy parts, you know, maybe buy a new food truck. And the most important thing is, my restaurant, it’s been affected severely because the foul odor – flies, rats.
RASCOE: We’ve all kind of been stuck behind a garbage truck or driven through, like, a area where it’s like a – you know, a wastewater plant or something. What are you living with right now?
LLAMAS: Something like, you know – something died. I don’t know if you’ve been experienced maybe like a rat that died, and it’s a foul odor, like, very heavy. You don’t know what it is. You get those waves. They’ll still hit you. Just imagine it was something frozen and got burnt, and then it’s discomposing.
RASCOE: Oh, my goodness. Well, Lineage Logistics is the company that owns the warehouse that caught fire. They released an estimate last week that cleanup will cost between 80 and 100 million dollars. Are you concerned that you’re going to be living with this rotting smell for at least a little longer?
LLAMAS: I’m concerned it’s going to take another month, and even then it’s going to leave a big impact. You know, Lineage had 3,000 employees. They’re gone, first. Second, the traffic – this main street that was the main traffic corridor is gone. People reroute, and it’s been two months that they rerouted. They’re going to take an alternative route.
RASCOE: Is there anything that you want from either Lineage Logistics or from local government officials that you would like for them to do?
LLAMAS: You know, they’re trying to help with respirators and masks and all that good stuff, which is good. But I live here. I work here. I’m afraid that my property values are going to come down ’cause nobody wants to – is not going to invest here. What I really want is answers and somebody to say, you know what, Chris, you know, we’ll cut you a check, we’ll do this. You know, Lineage, help out the neighborhood, you know, maybe with a grant or something.
RASCOE: And how would you describe the neighborhood? Would you say it’s a working-class neighborhood?
LLAMAS: Yes. Yes.
RASCOE: Do you think that’s affecting the response?
LLAMAS: It doesn’t take a genius. If we were in Beverly Hills, if we were in Brentwood, if we were in Calabasas, none of this would’ve happened. There would’ve been immediate response, immediate pressure. I’m in Boyle Heights. You know, it’s just understanding that it’s a working-class neighborhood, you know, minimum wages, that they just believe in work and come home, and now they can’t come home ’cause it’s bad.
RASCOE: Well, thank you so much. I’m sorry that you’ve had to go through this.
LLAMAS: Thank you.
RASCOE: That’s business owner and Boyle Heights resident Christian Llamas. Thank you so much for being with us.
LLAMAS: Thank you very much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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