California Neighborhood Overrun by ‘Sickening’ Stench

Residents in one Los Angeles neighborhood say they are being overwhelmed by a stomach-turning stench nearly two months after a massive warehouse fire left tens of millions of pounds of meat and seafood rotting inside the facility.

The fire broke out June 17 at a Lineage cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights and burned for roughly a week before crews finally extinguished it on June 24.

But for people living and working nearby, the nightmare is far from over.

The massive facility was reportedly holding around 88 million pounds of beef, poultry, pork and seafood when the blaze erupted. Much of that food was damaged, leaving crews with the enormous task of removing spoiled products as temperatures climbed during the Los Angeles summer.

Locals say the resulting smell has become almost unbearable.

“It smells really bad, like really bad… to the point that you want to throw up,” a security guard named Mesha told the BBC, comparing the odor to the smell of a dead body.

Boyle Heights resident Lisett Navarrete, 34, told the Los Angeles Times that the odor is so overwhelming that “you don’t even want to have breakfast.”

“We can’t run away from it, it’s all around us,” she said.

And the rotting food may be creating more problems than just an offensive smell.

A city-commissioned pest-control report obtained by NBC 4 reportedly raised concerns about green bottle flies breeding rapidly around the warehouse as they feast on food waste in the summer heat.

The report warned that the flies can potentially spread myiasis, a condition caused when flies lay eggs in open wounds on humans or animals.

“This disease can cause irritation, ulcers, and in some cases even death,” the report stated.

For nearby businesses, the aftermath has also become an economic headache.

Alexis Sicairos, who operates a coffee stand in the neighborhood, told the BBC that many warehouse employees who once bought from his business disappeared after the fire.

“Due to the fire, obviously most of them aren’t here,” Sicairos said.

But the warehouse workers aren’t the only missing customers.

“So we lost those customers, but we also lost customers that don’t want to be around the smell, the smoke, the flies,” he said.

“It’s understandable. But we have to keep paying our bills, so we’re still here.”

The mess is also becoming an uncomfortable political issue for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as she heads into an election year.

Bass acknowledged residents’ frustration and said the city has been working with the community.

“They deserve transparency, clear communication, and meaningful support,” Bass told the BBC. “Since day one, I have been in Boyle Heights listening to residents, meeting with families, and making sure their voices guide our response.”

Still, residents are now approaching two months of dealing with the consequences of the fire, putting increasing pressure on city officials and the warehouse operator to finish the cleanup.

Lineage has reportedly been given an August 13 deadline to complete the post-fire cleanup.

According to the company, crews have already removed roughly 85 percent of the spoiled food.

Lineage says it has also deployed fly and rodent-control equipment around the property and distributed hundreds of fly traps to people living nearby.

The cleanup won’t be cheap.

A Lineage spokesperson told the BBC that the company could ultimately spend as much as $100 million dealing with the disaster.

But for families and small-business owners in Boyle Heights who have spent weeks breathing in the smell of tens of millions of pounds of spoiled meat, the biggest question is much simpler:

When will the stink finally go away?