Landfill Fire Out, but Neighbors Remain Angry
A fire that erupted underneath the Lopez Canyon landfill this month appears to be out, but neighbors of the dump are mad because they were never told about the problem.
Officials of the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation, which owns and operates the dump above Lake View Terrace, said the fire was detected on Sept. 5 and apparently extinguished within days. Edwin Pupka, a senior enforcement manager at the Southern California Air Quality Management District, said underground fires sometimes occur spontaneously in dumps with gas extraction systems.
Pupka said he was “not aware of any risk to surrounding residents.”
But Rob Zapple, a resident of Kagel Canyon and a dump opponent, said neighbors should have been informed of the problem.
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