California hires security guards to monitor 10 Freeway following fire
Los Angeles CA January 6th, 2024
Since an arson fire at a storage yard damaged a key Los Angeles freeway, security guards hired by the state have been keeping watch for smoke and other trouble at three additional sites beneath Interstate 10 that were leased to the same bankrupt businessman.
Associated Press journalists visited the properties and saw wooden pallets and other hazardous and flammable material much like what fed the Nov. 11 inferno under the freeway, which is used by 300,000 vehicles daily. Rats scurried beneath cars, trucks and RVs in various states of repair as electrical wiring snaked across the ground.
The state has subcontracted the security services as it fights to evict Ahmad Anthony Nowaid and scores of tenants subleasing through him in violation of his contracts with the California Department of Transportation (or Caltrans), according to court records.
They are due back in court this month.
Just days after a massive blaze destroyed part of the 10 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, another fire broke out under a bridge.
No arrests have been announced in the arson case that forced a one-week closure of a 2-mile stretch of a key corridor for America’s supply chain and for commuters in the nation’s second-largest city. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the property was in the hands of “bad actors.”
The state leased more and more land to the businessman even as accusations mounted against him, raising questions about the government’s vetting process before it leases land under California’s freeways and highways.
Nowaid leased the storage yard that burned and four other properties from Caltrans — all but one of them under I-10 — through his companies, Apex Development Inc. and Metro Investments Group.
The guards from Treston Security Services are also at a receiving area where combustible items were moved to from properties leased to Nowaid, and a maintenance yard where Caltrans has set up temporary offices, Caltrans said.
Six tenants subletting spaces under I-10 described Nowaid as a bully. They showed receipts of their monthly payments to The Associated Press. Nowaid owes the state nearly $223,000 for one property, according to court documents.
“Where did all our money go?” said Alberto Mazariegos, who stores his business’s industrial laundry machines at the site where he paid $1,100 in monthly rent. “The state empowered this guy. They are responsible too.”
A person who answered a phone number listed for Nowaid referred questions to an attorney, Mainak D’Attaray. The attorney didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment on any of the allegations. D’Attaray said in a statement in November that Apex was not to blame for the fire and had made improvements to that property, though he said the company had not been able to access the premises shortly before the blaze happened.
The Nov. 11 fire quickly spread, fueled by wooden pallets, supplies of hand sanitizer and other flammable materials stored there in violation of the lease contract. The inferno damaged nearly 100 support columns of the interstate. Sixteen people who were living there, including a pregnant woman, were safely evacuated. The Biden administration gave the state $3 million in response to the disaster, though Caltrans has not released a final price tag.
Records show the state was aware of problems at the sites managed by Nowaid, with inspectors offering blistering reports identifying unsafe conditions for years.
