This browser does not support the Video element.
Meeting with executive over Boyle Heights fire
Lineage's chief operating officer met with Boyle Heights community leaders and local officials nearly three weeks after the warehouse fire, calling the meeting a first step toward improving communication and addressing community concerns. Community leaders criticized the meeting as unproductive, saying residents demanded accountability, answers and a follow-up meeting that Lineage did not commit to.
LOS ANGELES - Nearly three weeks after a massive fire tore through its cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights, Lineage sent one of its top executives to face community leaders Monday.
Jeff Rivera, the company's global chief operating officer, met behind closed doors with residents and local officials, then spoke with FOX 11 on his way out.
"Great having a conversation with the community. Yeah, it was a first step," Rivera said.
That first step came 19 days after flames ripped through the warehouse, sending a plume of acrid smoke over East Los Angeles, followed by a lingering stench from millions of pounds of rotting food. Neighbors say the smell has left them with headaches, nausea , and even vomiting.
Asked what he would say to residents who have to live next to the site, Rivera said: "I'd say that we took a first step working with CCF to try to get funds out there immediately to help the community, and we're working hard and taking the next steps to improve."
Pressed on why the company has not proactively told the community how much food has been removed, Rivera said the company is working on it.
"You know, so we are providing information, but we need to improve how we're providing it," he said. "That was a big conversation this afternoon with the mayor and with the team here. And so we're going to work together with community leaders on improving that information."
As for the next 24 to 48 hours, Rivera said the company's priority is to "start the demolition of that building and start removing food."
Rivera also said Lineage is working on a community request for temporary housing for residents who live next to the site and want to leave. "That was part of the ask, and that's exactly what we're working on right now," he said.
Longtime Boyle Heights resident Carlos Montes of Centro CSO, who was inside the meeting, pushed back on Rivera's characterization.
"No, it was not productive, not productive from the standpoint of the community that was there because all the communities stood up, the moms stood up and spoke in Spanish and demanded accountability, demanded answers, and demanded a follow-up meeting," Montes said. "He wouldn't even commit to a follow-up meeting."
Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who hosted the meeting, could not secure that commitment either and says Boyle Heights has seen this before.
"Corporations have been using this neighborhood and poor working-class neighborhoods as their trash can or where they make their money and riches off them," Jurado said. "But if this were to happen in their neighborhood, they would not allow it to fester for that long."
While Lineage calls Monday's meeting a first step, the next one comes Thursday: a town hall with the mayor's office and Supervisor Hilda Solis. Jurado says Lineage has agreed to attend.