Three years after Los Angeles police detonated fireworks and blew up a South Los Angeles neighborhood, the city will pay out more than $21 million to settle claims from many residents who were forced to evacuate and are still living in hotels.
Local residents put up signs in front of the press conference.
(Jason Almond/Los Angeles Times)
The City Council unanimously approved a settlement with more than a dozen residents on Tuesday, just days after the June 30, 2021, explosion. The settlement now goes to Mayor Karen Bass for approval.
The city agreed to pay resident Lucia Gonzalez $175,000. Rosalina Reyes will receive $1.07 million, but her family’s lawyers say that only covers property damage and not personal injuries.
But the largest settlement is $20 million to resolve property and personal injury claims for more than a dozen residents of the working-class neighborhood. Compensation ranges from $100,000 to $2.8 million for 17 plaintiffs.
Los Angeles City Council Member Karen Price attends a City Council meeting at City Hall on July 2, 2024.
(Myung J. Chung/Los Angeles Times)
City Councilwoman Karen Price, whose district included the explosion, said in a statement Tuesday that the process over the past three years has been “extremely slow, and on behalf of the City of Los Angeles, I regret that it has taken so long to get to this stage.”
“The victims of the 27th Street fireworks explosion have endured unimaginable pain and lifelong trauma,” Price said. “Reaching these financial settlements was a significant step toward their healing, rebuilding their lives, and finding stability and peace.”
Price amended his motion to seek a $20 million settlement and proposed extending stays at the downtown Rebel Hotel for affected residents through February, as well as an extension of services at the All People’s Community Center, which has been providing support and resources to residents since the explosion.
City Auditor Kenneth Mejia’s office calculated that the explosion had caused nearly $10.5 million in damages to the city as of February.
Diana Chang, a spokeswoman for Mayor Mejia, said in an email that it had cost $5.3 million to relocate displaced residents, plus $2.3 million in compensation claims, $1.55 million in cleanup and repairs, $1.3 million for the LAPD containment vehicle destroyed in the explosion, and just over $44,000 in city personnel costs, excluding police officers’ expenses.
“The truth is this incident should never have happened, was completely preventable and we are still reeling from it all these years later,” Price said.
Some homes on East 27th Street have plywood covering window and door openings after the Los Angeles Police Department fireworks explosion.
(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
Jose Bacerra at his home in Los Angeles on October 27, 2021. The explosion caused extensive damage to the house where Bacerra lived with 10 family members.
(Irrfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
About 42 residents still live in the Revel, spread across 13 apartments, and city officials say the settlement money will cover many of them. But there are still unresolved claims, including those from the Reyes family.
The city attorney’s office did not provide a breakdown of the number of charges remaining.
Once the settlement checks are issued, families staying at the hotels will have up to 90 days to find alternative housing, Price’s office said.
Price’s office said the agreement “includes provisions that allow individuals sufficient time to vacate the hotel.”
Kenya Quintanilla, a party to the larger settlement, said her family plans to buy a house, but is waiting to start looking until she has the money.
“I don’t know where I’m going, but it doesn’t really matter,” Quintanilla said. “I just don’t want to be in a hotel. I’m sick of it.”
On June 30, 2021, Los Angeles Police Department explosives squad members botched the detonation of a cache of fireworks found in the backyard of a home on 27th Street. The explosion injured 17 people and severely damaged the home. More than 80 residents were displaced.
The illegal fireworks were found at the home of Arturo Ceja III, who pleaded guilty in federal court to unauthorized transportation of explosives from Nevada to California. He was sentenced to five months in prison and two years of probation. Ceja will not be fined or required to pay restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
Despite repeated requests from residents who lost their homes in the explosion, the names of the officers involved and their formal disciplinary actions have remained largely shrouded in mystery because of the LAPD’s secretive disciplinary system and refusal to discuss personnel matters. Last year, The Times identified the explosives squad members involved in the blast.
Among them were Detective Damien Levesque, the site supervisor who repeatedly ducked out of important discussions about the safety of the operation; lead engineer Mel Hogg, who did not weigh the gunpowder in the fireworks the team planned to detonate, grossly underestimating their explosive power; Mark Richardson, who helped Hogg x-ray samples of the explosives; Brendan McCarty, who warned his fellow engineers and Levesque that the plan was unsafe; Thomas DeLucia, who helped load the commercially available fireworks found in the home; and Stephanie Alcocer, who was primarily responsible for manufacturing the countercharge, the explosive used to detonate the fireworks inside a police “total containment container” that failed during the detonation.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department Inspector General’s report, bomb technicians at the scene believed the canister had a maximum capacity of 40 pounds of net explosives, but it was only capable of handling 33 pounds of explosives.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives later determined that the explosives disposal unit had loaded 39.8 pounds of explosives onto the ship, an amount that included counterclaim charges.
“I have every expectation that the Los Angeles Police Department will learn from this tragic event and take all necessary steps to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again for our city,” Mayor Price said in a statement.
Times reporter David Zarnizer contributed to this report.