Lineage says it's reached a "major milestone" in Boyle Heights burned warehouse cleanup
Lineage, the company operating the cold food storage warehouse in Boyle Heights that burned last month, says it's cleared nearly half of the food waste from the site.
The update comes after the company was cited by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Friday for rodent and pest control violations, the second such mandate issued by a government agency. Earlier this month, the South Coast Air Quality Management District ordered Lineage to reduce the foul smells after regulators received more than 900 complaints within one week.
Saturday's update said Lineage has sealed the food waste in deodorized containers to be transported offsite.
"[Saturday] we will begin scraping and power washing the concrete slab, and we expect demolition and cleanup of the remaining burned structure to be largely complete in the coming days," Lineage said. "We will maintain the plastic sheeting currently in place to cover the north side of the burned structure."
The company says that it'll begin to remove the wall separating the burned from the unburned sections of the building in order to accelerate the cleanup of the unburned portion of the structure. The process could take up to three days and "may result in a temporary increase in orders," Lineage claims.
"We are moving as fast and as safely as we can, and we will not stop until this community can move forward," the statement reads.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has set a 45-day timeline for Lineage to remove the biohazardous waste.
Lineage has donated about $2.5 million worth of air purifiers, housing vouchers, masks, meals and other assistance to residents affected by the blaze.
The company maintains that it's not responsible for the fire — instead claiming that it started under the watch of solar panel contractor Altus Power.
"We believe the fire started on the roof when a contractor of the owner of the solar array, Altus Power, was testing the array," a statement on Lineage's website says. "Regardless of how the fire started, Lineage has been on the front lines since day one, and we are committed to doing everything in our power to execute a safe and swift remediation effort."
Altus, on the other hand, has not claimed responsibility. In a statement, Altus said, "multiple parties joined in asking Lineage to appropriately preserve and not destroy relevant evidence during its site remediations."
"It is unfortunate that Lineage appears to be focused on pointing fingers rather than getting this community the swift clean-up and answers it deserves," Altus Power wrote.