After cleaning up the city for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, California Governor Gavin Newsom probably thought he would have an easy week of photo-ops in San Francisco.
But Southern California had different plans…..
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday after a massive fire erupted at a storage yard, shutting down one of the busiest freeways in downtown Los Angeles.The blaze was first reported in the early morning around 12:30 a.m. at a pallet yard underneath the I-10 Freeway near East 14th and Alameda streets, officials said.It eventually spread to eight acres before it was extinguished.Shocking video footage from KABC shows immense flames shooting into the sky, consuming a highway overpass.The inferno sent homeless people living beneath the road scrambling and destroyed an LAFD fire engine and several civilian vehicles, according to the outlet.No injuries have been reported, according to LAFD.
It Is being reported that arson was the cause of the blaze that closed Interstate 10.
Arson likely caused a massive weekend fire that has indefinitely closed a vital section of a freeway in Los Angeles, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday.He did not say whether there were any suspects or persons of interest. The fire left the columns of Interstate 10 charred and chipped and the deck guardrails were twisted and blackened. Crews shored up the most damaged section for the safety of workers clearing the debris. It’s still unclear what structural damage, if any, the blaze caused to the freeway.Engineers were assessing the situation Monday. The freeway is used by 300,000 vehicles daily and the closure is expected to be felt well beyond the city, including possibly slowing the transport of goods from the twin ports of LA and Long Beach, federal officials have said. The ports are among the nation’s largest and handle more than half the goods coming into the U.S. President Joe Biden had been briefed on the fire that erupted Saturday.“We know that the origin of this is arson,” LA Mayor Karen Bass said. “We do not know other information.” She emphasized that there also is no reason to assume it was started by people who are homeless living under that section of freeway.
Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg may take a few moments away from his focus on Ukrainian infrastructure to lend support.
The level of damage is severe. Engineering experts are evaluating if the stretch of road has to be demolished and rebuilt.
[LA Mayor Karen Bass] said she had “directed all city departments to immediately plan for how to address increased traffic due to this closure to best mitigate the impact on Angelenos and we will continue to urgently coordinate with our state partners to resolve this issue for not only the millions who use this freeway, but also for those who live and work in the surrounding areas.”And she continued: “For those of you who remember the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Caltrans worked around the clock to complete emergency repairs to the freeways – and this structural damage calls for the same level of urgency and effort.”
It is wildfire season in Southern California. The destruction to Los Angeles could have been far worse than serious structural damage to a major freeway. Let’s hope there are enough competent workers left in California to make the repairs needed rapidly.
As a side note, here is Newsom in 2008, promising to end homelessness in San Francisco in…10 years. So, there is little hope our politicians will do anything meaningful to resolve the homelessness issues that may have led to the fire.
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