After two months of investigation, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, in Los Angeles, determined what caused the odor in the city of Carson, in Los Angeles County: it was the fire of three alarms in a warehouse that stored wellness and beauty products.
The mishap occurred on Sept. 30, but Carson residents began to notice
a sour smell, like a rotten egg
, in early October, The Washington Post reports.
Monica Álvarez and her family even began to have headaches and stomach pains.
"The smell itself was never a big problem for me," Álvarez, 40, told the outlet.
"It was more like waking up with the feeling of having left the gas [on the stove] on."
Three weeks after noticing the bad smell, Álvarez
found his three-year-old daughter lying on the ground
, and she told him she had a stomach injury.
It was then that she and other residents decided to sue.
Richard Mootry, a resident of Carson, looks out over the Dominguez Canal, the source from which a foul odor was believed to emanate.
Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
"Gas has caused and continues to cause physical harm to residents and is interfering with their ability to use and enjoy their property," states the class action lawsuit, filed Nov. 12 in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Since October to date, more than 4,600 odor complaints have been filed and about 3,200 residents of Carson and neighboring cities have
been temporarily transferred to hotel rooms paid for by the county.
Those who stayed home, instead, received air purifiers.
Álvarez and his family were relocated to one of the hotels.
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The Los Angeles Times newspaper, quoted by The Washington Post, reported that officials knew that the stench was the product of a colorless and odorous gas called hydrogen sulfide, produced by decomposing organic matter that probably emanated from the Domínguez Canal that through Carson.
But then they discovered that it was the fire of the alarms.
[A landlord accidentally burned down his house in Maryland while trying to eradicate a snake infestation]
After the fire was extinguished, after days of effort,
chemicals from the products, including ethanol, flowed into the sewer system
and into the Domínguez Canal, the administrative district said in a press release.
At its worst, hydrogen sulfide levels in the air reached nearly
7,000 parts per billion;
that is, 230 times more than the state standard.
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The administrative district issued tickets to four businesses, as well as Los Angeles County, for their role in air pollution.
[A fire causes evacuation of houses in the hills of California]
Álvarez said that since she and her family returned home on Nov. 26, the odor has dissipated, but they are still experiencing symptoms.
"It's nice to be home, but ...
I'm really considering moving,
" he said.
