LOS ANGELES—A waste disposal services company owner is suing the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) over business losses he says he incurred due to a 2023 fire under a stretch of the Santa Monica (10) Freeway in downtown Los Angeles that forced a temporary closure of the busy roadway.
Taurino Torres stored vehicles and supplies on Lawrence Street under the freeway in an area owned by Caltrans, according to the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit brought Friday, alleging negligence and dangerous conditions of public property. Torres seeks unspecified damages.
A Caltrans representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit.
The initial fire was reported at 12:22 a.m. Nov. 11 in the 1700 block of East 14th Street, two blocks west of Alameda Street, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Margaret Stewart.
Firefighters from 26 companies worked to contain and extinguish the major emergency fire, which started in one downtown pallet yard, spread to another and consumed a fire engine that became stuck in its path, Stewart said.
The first pallet yard was 40,000 square feet in size and fully involved with flames that engulfed multiple trailers when firefighters arrived. The flames spread to the second pallet yard of similar size between Lawrence and Elwood streets.
Stewart said that by 2:33 a.m., pallets in both yards were mostly consumed by the flames and firefighters were using bulldozers to move debris and put out hot spots. Firefighters successfully prevented the fire from spreading to three nearby commercial buildings, she said.
The company that leases the property where the fire occurred, Calabasas-based Apex Development, is being sued by the state for failure to pay rent and violating the terms of its lease, in part by subleasing the property to other businesses and by allowing flammable materials to be stored on the land. That lawsuit was filed long before the fire erupted. The freeway reopened Nov. 20.
According to Torres’s suit, he has struggled to support his family since the blaze, because the flames destroyed property important to his business and significantly impacted his ability to conduct his regular services to clients. Torres’s business was one of several subleased from Apex, the Torres suit states.
During the 15-year lease to Apex, Caltrans did not conduct required inspections more than 65 percent of the time, according to the Torres suit, which further states that Caltrans knew that pallets were stacked up to the bottom of the freeway and near flammable liquids.
Torres lost about $157,000 in vehicles and equipment and had to pay nearly $212,000 to replace them, according to his suit.
The plaintiff also could not operate his business for at least two months and lost clients who turned to competitors while Torres’s business was temporarily shut down, the suit further alleges. Torres is represented by former City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.
