LOS ANGELES — A devastating fire last year that destroyed a key section of a Los Angeles freeway used by hundreds of thousands of commuters was due in part to lax oversight by the California Department of Transportation, according to a state audit.
Authorities determined the fire was arson, but the Caltrans Office of Inspector General said the department had conducted required annual inspections of parking lots under Interstate 10 just five times in 15 years and had not adequately documented those inspections. Caltrans found the problems but failed to act.
“Caltrans could and should have done more to make this property safer for the motoring public,” the report, released last Thursday, said.
The California Department of Transportation said in a statement that since the fire, it has implemented new safety measures to better protect the state’s highway system and has also suspended new leasing of parcels.
“Safety is Caltrans’s top priority, and the agency takes the findings of this audit report seriously,” the agency said in a statement.
According to reports, flammable materials were being illegally stored on land under the freeway that the California Department of Transportation leased to a private company, Apex Development Corp. The fire burned about 100 poles and spread to an area authorities say is equivalent to six football fields, forcing the closure of a mile-long stretch of Interstate 10 near downtown Los Angeles.
Officials estimated the initial repairs, which were expected to be covered with federal funds, would cost $3 million.
Caltrans inspected the property multiple times and found several hazards, including piles of wooden pallets stacked high, as well as flammable materials like solvents, oils and fuels. In a lawsuit filed before the fire, the agency also alleged that Apex had illegally subleased the property to six other companies.
The audit also found there were “past warning signs” that Caltrans failed to respond to, including a massive highway fire that broke out under Interstate 85 in Atlanta in 2017, when construction materials stored under an overpass caught fire and caused a 92-foot section of the highway to collapse.
In 2022, another fire broke out in the space under the Los Angeles Freeway, right next to where the fire broke out last fall, but “there was no visible response from CalTrans or any indication of urgency to prevent new fires from starting,” the report said. After that incident, it took the agency four months to complete its investigation.
“Due to various landlord-tenant laws and its own limited expertise, Caltrans is somewhat limited in its ability to act independently when necessary,” the 2023 fire report said.
The audit recommended Caltrans conduct more regular inspections, train staff in identifying lease violations and streamline the approval process that determines when legal action should be taken.
Caltrans has 60 days to develop a corrective action plan and is required to provide updates every six months until all issues are resolved.