California’s program to rent space under highways in the state will be reviewedafter the fire that occurred in the early hours of November 11 on the 10 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles.
In many of these spaces highly flammable products are storedsuch as wooden pallets, cardboard boxes and vehicles, which if ignited can cause severe damage, as occurred in the accident that forced the closure of an important road in the city center.
The flames that broke out on November 11 They burned about 100 freeway support columns and that led to the determination to close a one-mile stretch of highway that is traveled by hundreds of thousands of people each day.
He California Governor Gavin Newsomstated that the collapse of the road would not be necessary, but the closure of Freeway 10 will last three to five weeks while rehabilitation work is carried out.
Newsom announced that the state government will review the program to reassess whether the rental of spaces below the freeways is maintainedwhose funds are allocated for mass transportation projects.
However, the program has unclear points and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) did not answer questions about inspection processes or the number of lands the state has under this program.
California Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, who represents part of downtown Los Angeles, told Telemundo that state officials They must report how many spaces they have rented with this programthe terms of the contracts, the resources obtained and how it is ensured that companies comply with the obligations of the contracts.
“Some of those actions could have prevented what we now see happening under Interstate 10,” Santiago said.
Since 2008, the company Apex Development Inc. had rented the land that caught fire over the weekend under the 10 Freeway, and the contract mentioned that it was prohibited to store flammable or hazardous materials.
Besides, Apex Development Inc. subleased the spaceswithout leaving aside the fact that he had not covered the rent payment for more than a year.
The fire spread quickly through the highly flammable material that was stored, such as pallets of wood, construction materials, automobiles and other products, up to about 8 acres just below the road.
No injuries were reported in the incident, and About 16 people who lived in a homeless camp near the site were moved to shelters.
Governor Newsom himself said that everything seemed to indicate that the fire had been intentional and that investigators were working to determine if one or more people were involved in the incident.
Weeks before the fire occurred, state officials had filed a lawsuit against Apex Development Inc. over the $78,000 owed for nonpayment of last year’s rent.
The lawsuit says that Apex subleased the spaces to six other companiessomething that may be legal if there was authorization from state and federal regulators, but this is not the case.
Apex Development Inc. confirmed the lawsuit.
Given this situation, the material that burned in the fire on November 11 belongs to companies that subleased the space to Apex. Apparently, its owners had warned about the risk of fire and other types of risk due to the presence of homeless people in the area.
The company Eagle Wood Services, which had previously subleased the land, stopped storing its wooden pallets there since more than a year ago due to the losses it suffered due to thefts.
One of Apex’s current subtenants, Rudy Serafín, mentioned that he had rented the land since 2009 to store supplies for businesses in the garment district, such as boxes and bagsin addition to storing office supplies and hand sanitizer, a flammable product.
Serafín estimates that as a result of the fire, Your losses would be about $800,000.. He said he was unable to get insurance for his business because of concerns that homeless people might use stoves for cooking.
He and other businesses contacted city officials to request a cleanup of the camp. The authorities The homeless were removed once, but the camps returned quickly.
On Monday, Mayor Karen Bass said that There was no evidence that the fire could have been caused by homeless people..
According to Serafín, both he and other sublessors received notices in May from Caltrans about Apex’s failure to pay rent. The companies decided to suspend their payments to Apex, but they stopped having access to their properties.
After resuming their payments, the companies attempted to negotiate directly with Caltrans, but the agency’s lawyer told them that they could not negotiate with them.
It is not the first time that a fire under state highways pprovokes scrutiny of researchers.
In the wake of the collapse of a section of Interstate 60 in Atlanta, the National Transportation Safety Board criticized the Georgia Department of Transportation’s decision to store construction materials under bridges without evaluating fire risks.
The department said it immediately changed its storage policies.
It is estimated that About 300,000 vehicles crossed the section of Freeway 10 every day connecting east and west through the city center and leading to other major highways.
Authorities urge residents to avoid the area, use buses and trains, and work from home if possible.
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