Months after 10 Freeway fire, danger still lurks beneath transit routes, inspections reveal

The state fire marshal has identified 15 sites leased by Caltrans along and under Los Angeles’ freeways with fire risks that could lead to another destructive blaze similar to the one that damaged the 10 Freeway in November.

Inspectors found hazardous stacks of wood pallets, gas canisters, tires and other highly flammable materials at multiple properties beneath the 101, 10 and 5 freeways over the past three months, according to the newly released inspection reports.

In some cases, Caltrans tenants had constructed makeshift living quarters without permission, including a company that set up a gym, office and kitchen complete with a propane-powered grill amid rows of wooden movie set pieces.

Another appeared to have used a warehouse leased by the state as an illegal marijuana grow house. Inspectors found unpermitted additions to create grow rooms, spliced wiring, obstructed sprinklers and massive CO2 canisters tagged with “condemned” labels from the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The California Department of Cannabis Control did not list any active licenses within the vicinity of the property.

Lax oversight not isolated

The state fire marshal’s findings suggest the lax oversight that led to the 10 Freeway fire was not an isolated incident. In that case, Caltrans’ own inspectors had repeatedly flagged hazards at the East 14th Street site where the blaze began.

The tenant, Apex Development, had subleased to a dozen small businesses, including a pallet company, a mechanic and others, without Caltrans’ permission.

Though Apex allegedly hadn’t paid rent in three years, Caltrans did not initiate the eviction process until September 2023, just a few months before the wood pallets, hand sanitizer bottles and trailers improperly stored on site were ignited by a suspected arsonist.

Caltrans Director Tony Tavares, in a Feb. 6 memo to Gov. Gavin Newsom, acknowledged the eviction took longer than it should have and pledged to streamline the process in the future to create quicker turnarounds.

“Although Caltrans served the tenant notice to vacate the premises in November 2020, an unlawful detainer action to remove the tenant from the property was not filed until September 2023,” Tavares wrote. “The delay in this case was due, in part, to COVID-era limitations on eviction actions for nonpayment.”

The Nov. 11 fire quickly consumed the densely packed pallets, creating an inferno that damaged the freeway’s supports. The 10 was closed to traffic for roughly eight days while crews worked around the clock to repair the damage.

Top-to-bottom review

In response to the fire, Newsom ordered Caltrans to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the state’s “airspace” leasing program, which rents 601 state-owned properties beneath freeways and bridges as a revenue source for mass transportation projects.

Caltrans identified 47 potentially risky sites while conducting an inventory of the leases. All 15 in the city of Los Angeles failed their most recent fire inspections, according to the reports.

Inspectors did not identify any sites in Riverside or Orange counties. Two properties in San Bernardino County failed their inspections for minor violations — one near the 215 Freeway was inaccessible to inspectors, while the other, near the 10 Freeway in Ontario, had a single unpermitted trailer on a dirt lot.

Missing fire extinguishers, broken sprinklers

Many of the airspace properties examined by the state fire marshal had similar violations: missing fire extinguishers and alarms, broken or blocked sprinklers and dangerously daisy-chained or spliced wires.

Some had obvious unpermitted construction, while others openly stored wood pallets, damaged cars, gas canisters, car batteries and other hazardous materials prohibited by Caltrans’ leases.

During an inspection of a self-storage business tucked next to the 101, inspectors found units filled to the brim with car tires, boxes of documents, clothes and even trash.

Another business operated a retail hydroponics shop open to the public, though the site wasn’t permitted for such a use, according to the reports.

At least three properties appeared to have people living on site, either in makeshift bedrooms hidden within industrial warehouses or in trailers stored beneath the freeways.

Working to address problem sites

Tavares, in his Feb. 6 memo to Newsom, said the department is working to address these problematic sites, either by ordering the tenant to fix the safety issues or by initiating legal action.

Tavares acknowledged the airspace program’s failings in the memo and laid out a series of recommendations designed to prevent a repeat of the 10 Freeway fire.

“Since Caltrans first began leasing Airspace sites in the 1970s, the properties have benefited small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and local governments, including being used as a hub to connect transit users with buses, trains, and other clean energy transportation opportunities,” Tavares wrote in the memo. “Nonetheless, as demonstrated by the recent I-10 fire, the Airspace program also presents risks.”

Caltrans’ review of the program is ongoing and will “take into account the benefits and risks of the program, as well as explore potential program improvements to mitigate risks,” the memo states.

Tavares’ recommendations include requiring credit and background checks for prospective tenants; strictly barring subleasing; increasing the frequency of inspections and maintaining an up-to-date inventory of the current leases.

Caltrans previously did not have a combined inventory of all the airspace leases and had to create one through paper records stored at multiple district offices, the memo states.

Enforcement left to staff discretion

The review found that about 83% of the airspace leases were inspected annually, as required. However, the department’s policy left the initiation of enforcement actions to staff’s discretion, Tavares noted. One of his recommendations would require staff to take action whenever a violation is found.

The policy previously required approval by the Caltrans director to start the eviction process for any airspace lease. Tavares has recommended expanding that authority to right-of-way managers and division chiefs. If a staff member requests approval to evict a tenant, a response would be required within 30 days, the memo states.

Caltrans also did not have standardized lease terms and had used an outdated statutory definition when prohibiting “hazardous” materials. In the future, Tavares wants future leases for “open storage” to specifically spell out what materials are prohibited and to set requirements for how other materials should be stored.

“Caltrans should not approve ‘open storage’ as a permissible site use without greater specificity as to materials to be stored,” Tavares wrote.

The list of prohibited materials would include: oil, gasoline, lumber, pallets, wood chips, landscaping materials, nonoperable vehicles, plastic piping/tubing, tires, paper products, fabrics, batteries and cleaning supplies in industrial quantities.

Almost all of those were found during the fire marshal’s recent inspections in Los Angeles and are already prohibited by the Federal Highway Administration.