A mile-long stretch of the 10 Freeway in Los Angeles was shut down over the weekend due to a fire that engulfed a homeless encampment under it, city officials said on Sunday.
The fire severely damaged the roadway leaving it closed indefinitely until repairs can be made. The California Department of Transportation launched an investigation into the origin of the fire and discovered it emanated from two pallet storage areas beneath the freeway that were also serving as a homeless encampment.
Legacy media outlets largely omitted this latter aspect of the story, which was confirmed by David Ortiz, an officer of public information for the Los Angeles Fire Department. According to Ortiz, multiple RVs housing vagrants were parked under the bridge, alongside a large tent encampment.
“It’s quite a large population of people experiencing homelessness living out here on these streets and RVs and makeshift homes, and they were all driven back by the heat but none of them luckily were injured,” Ortiz said.
#BREAKING Both directions of the 10 Freeway near Alameda in Downtown Los Angeles are shutdown following a massive pallet fire. @LAFD on scene. CALTRANS is determining if the structural integrity of the freeway has been compromised.
(🎥: @RMGNews)
Stay with @ABC7 for updates. pic.twitter.com/mVFSMA82LN
— Marc Cota-Robles (@abc7marccr) November 11, 2023
According to the Santa Monica Observer, homeless individuals in the region frequently steal electricity from light sources, a hazardous practice. More than half of the fires in LA county in 2021 were thought to originate from the homeless population.
The fire was first reported shortly after midnight Saturday morning in the 1700 block of East 14th Street. A 40,000-square-foot yard of wooden pallets reportedly caught fire, and the flames spread to a second pallet yard. Multiple vehicles were destroyed including a firetruck, and the freeway overpass directly overhead also received damage.
Over 150 firefighters across 26 LA Fire Department stations responded to the incident to contain the fire. They protected three commercial buildings from getting damaged and ensured there would be no injuries. The fire was put out by 10:00 AM Saturday.
LA Mayor Karen Bass said there was “no reason to think this will be over in a couple of days,” adding, “We will need to come together and all cooperate until the freeway is rebuilt.” An estimated 300,000 vehicles pass over that highway on a daily basis. Officials told LA residents to “stay home,” “avoid the area” or “use public transit while work continues on the freeway.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Saturday night to accelerate the repair process. He attended a press conference with Mayor Bass, who noted Biden administration Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had been contacted about “additional resources.”
This is not the first time an LA homeless encampment caused fire damage. In 2017, a blaze started by a “cooking fire” at a homeless encampment spread through Bel-Air, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the United State.
Authorities said the homeless had been living in the encampment, which was located near an underpass of the 405 freeway, for several years. The fire caused millions of dollars in property damages, destroying six homes and lighting up about 400 acres of land. The highway was shut down in response.
At the time, the New York Times reported that an average of 103 wildfires a year in California are caused by illegal open fires, deriving this data from government agency Cal Fire. About 85 percent of wildfires nationwide are caused by human actions, according to the National Park Service.
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