By Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
A massive blaze in a storage area managed to spread and shut down a decently sized portion of the I-10 in Los Angeles. The fire broke out early on Saturday, November 11th, and has been called a traffic crisis. The I-10 already had traffic problems without closing down a portion of I-10 South to downtown. Investigators are saying that the fire was started with malicious and willful intent. Governor Gavin Newsom said that the fire was started behind the fence line of the facility and by an arsonist intentionally.
In good news, no deaths have been reported as of now. The biggest issue is that around 300,000 people drive that stretch of the I-10 daily. Employers were asked to have employees work remotely. This also presents an issue as Thanksgiving is approaching and many travel to be with family. The company that had been leasing the storage area under the freeway is called Apex Development Inc. The company had been caught up in litigation with state officials. Apparently, they had stopped paying rent and had illegally sublet the space to five or six different companies. They did this without legal authorization.
The section that caught on fire was 450 feet long and it sustained extensive damage. Another piece of good news in this situation is that the section doesn’t have to be torn down to be repaired. 100 support beams were damaged and nine or ten were damaged severely. Governor Newsom said that the task of fixing the freeway will be a 24/7 operation rain or shine. The highway will remain closed until repairs are finished.
Many are wondering who caused the fire. They know it was arson but they don’t know who or what started the fire. The fact that the fire is an arson case makes many wonder if this is a one-time occurrence or if more fires will be set. If more fires are set then this will make matters significantly worse. Everyone wants to know the details but even the investigators themselves don’t know too much yet. However, the investigators are working to hold the arsonist accountable for the blaze.
In arson cases, many questions appear that long to be answered. Some wonder if there will be more fires, and some wonder if the fire was set out of revenge. Some wonder if they’ll be safe the next time they get in their car and drive to do mundane things like going to the bank or going grocery shopping. Hopefully, these questions will be answered in a short time and more will be known about the fire. In the grand scheme of arson cases, this one could’ve been a lot worse, and it is just very fortunate that nobody was seriously injured due to the fire. While everything is still being investigated we can only hope that the person responsible for the fire will be held accountable for it.
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