On a recent cold morning in Hesperia, Alfredo Lara used a shovel to pour cement into a wide, volcano-shaped concrete pile for mixing. Nearby, his friend was filling a bucket with water as the last ingredient.
“Well, here we are, trying to keep going,” the 70-year-old said in Spanish. “But it wasn’t easy and it was a real struggle.”
Just over a year ago, a massive fire broke out under the Santa Monica Freeway in downtown Los Angeles, damaging dozens of support columns, melting guardrails, and causing millions of dollars in damage to the overpass. . An arsonist was blamed for the fire, but no arrests have been made.
The highway was initially expected to be closed for several weeks, shutting down a vital traffic route for daily commuters and local commerce, but it reopened much sooner than expected.
But recovery has been much slower for some of those hardest hit by the disaster, such as Lara’s junk collection business, one of about a dozen businesses operating under the expressway. . The concrete he was mixing on a recent Friday was to be used to secure a fence around the 1-acre property he purchased in Hesperia four months ago.
Alfredo Lara prepares cement to reinforce a fence at his new towing yard after his towing business went under under the 10 Freeway.
(Allen J. Scherben/Los Angeles Times)
Before the fire, he and other immigrant business owners were paying rent to their landlord, Apex Development Corp., a Calabasas-based company that owns a 48,000-square-foot triangular property beneath the freeway. The land was leased from the California Department of Transportation and illegally sublet. to them, according to state records and authorities.
At the time, Caltrans was suing Apex Development’s owner, Ahmad Anthony Nowaid, for owed $78,000 in unpaid rent on the property. It was also one of five properties Caltrans was trying to evict from another company, Apex and Nowaid, alleging they owed a total of $620,000 in unpaid rent.
Nowaid’s lawyer Mainak Dattaley did not respond to a request for comment.
Lara, who paid $4,000 a month for his space on the Nowade property, said he sublet it because it was expensive, but that he and others paid rent until Caltrans told them not to. This led Mr. Nowaid to sue Caltrans for interfering with his business. A few months later, a fire broke out.
“I lost about $150,000 worth of property,” Lara said. “I had two tow trucks and about a dozen vehicles, including a 1970s Chevy truck and a Ford truck.”
Lara said they too received little assistance from state and local officials. He applied for a low-interest federal disaster loan with the Small Business Administration, but said there was no follow-up.
“I didn’t receive any letters or phone calls from them,” he said.
On the other hand, some people who received loans complained that the amount was low.
Max Paxter, who owned a recycling business, said he lost more than $200,000 in property in the fire, but was only able to get a $25,000 loan from the SBA. He said he had to borrow $45,000 from family and friends to rebuild his business. At least one vendor sued Caltrans for negligence.
Caltrans said in a written statement that all litigation remains pending and declined to comment.
The SBA did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
But locally, the city’s Office of Emergency Management has set up a recovery center to connect business owners with the resources they need.
At least 117 business owners visited the center, with 18 reporting direct fire damage, 25 reporting smoke damage, and 104 reporting economic damage, ministry officials said. Some had all three.
Jennifer Lazo, the department’s coordinator and head of innovation and technology, said the agency is partnering with city council offices and business groups to distribute information to those affected by the fires.
Aerial photos of the expressway 10 days after the expressway was closed to traffic on November 13, 2023, after a large-scale pallet fire broke out below.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“Businesses that did not visit a center but received virtual assistance or went to a Business Source center in person may have been impacted even more,” she said.
Lazo said the department’s role is to gather resources, while the city’s Economic and Workforce Development Department and the federal SBA manage financial assistance to businesses.
In a written statement, the Department of Economic and Workforce Development said staff from neighborhood resource centers spent four days patrolling the area, providing information about loans and services to people affected by the fires in English, Spanish and Korean. He said he did.
“Staff contacted 83 businesses during this period,” the statement said. “The goal was to ensure businesses received the support and resources they needed to recover and rebuild.”
The department said at least five grants of up to $5,000 each have been issued through the Microenterprise Grant Program. Some business owners may be disqualified because the federal program requires businesses to have five or fewer employees. Most merchants like Lara were self-employed.
The fire was a devastating blow to Lara and his wife Sophia Cruz, 63. Lara was unable to work for two months, and the couple spent all of their savings of $15,000.
He said he was using a tow dolly to pick up the car and take it to a salvage yard to earn money toward rebuilding it.
Construction workers measure along a burnt section of the 10 Freeway on 14th Street in Alameda on November 15, 2023.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Lara said the extreme stress and anxiety since the fire had caused colitis and depression. His wife is often so nervous that she cries and bites her nails.
“She wasn’t sleeping, she wasn’t eating,” he said. “I tried to reassure her that it would be okay in the end.”
But stress is also taking a toll on Lara. Poor blood circulation in his legs caused him to walk with a waddle. He said his legs swell, he gets headaches easily, and his chest feels heavy.
Lara, who is short and dignified with a stoic face and white hair, said he still puts on a brave face in front of his wife.
“It makes me sad, but I tell myself that thought is useless. I have to think of solutions instead,” he said.
But when he thinks alone about the weight of his debts, his wife’s health, and his uncertain future, he sheds tears.
“We’ve lived a hard life,” he said. “We have sacrificed so much.”
Lara came to the United States in 1992 from Zapopan, a town in the Mexican state of Jalisco. He lived in a small apartment in Lincoln Heights, where his wife also lived at the time.
“We were neighbors,” he recalled. “We always said hello to each other.”
That greeting turned into a marriage vow. The two worked and saved money to buy a house.
At some point, Lara got a job at a towing company, where she became interested in starting her own business. His wife agreed to support him in making it happen.
Over the years, Lara said, the business has grown and he was able to purchase a second tow truck, which his wife drives.
“Those days were full of happiness and hope,” he says.
In November 2023, the couple moved into a new three-bedroom home in Apple Valley.
“I thought we had reached that moment in the story where you live happily ever after,” Lara said.
But a few hours after moving, he said he received a call from another businessman saying his entire business had been burned down.
Firefighters look over Fire Engine 17 after it was destroyed by a pallet fire under the 10 Freeway overpass in Los Angeles on November 11, 2023.
(Irrfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
Aerial view of Highway 10 on November 13, 2023, after the highway was closed due to a massive pallet fire below. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Since then, Lara has been forced to take out a $25,000 business loan at high interest rates. He also owes $75,000 to a friend who sold him a yellow 2016 Ford F-650 bed truck.
“It was great to get the business back on track,” he said. “But there is debt pressure there.”
He recently purchased land in Hesperia after neighbors complained to the city that he was using his Apple Valley home as a junkyard. He has a hearing scheduled and fears he will be fined. His focus now is to use the new property to transport cars from Fontana, Victorville, Pomona and Riverside. These days, he receives less money per towed vehicle than the $600 he received a few years ago, adding new challenges.
On a recent morning in a vacant lot, Lara limped out of the driver’s side of a pickup truck with a cracked windshield. November is a difficult month and debt is mounting.
Last week, he and his wife stopped visiting family for Thanksgiving, choosing to spend it at home.
“The $100 we spend on a family gathering could end up being $100 on our bill as well,” he said. “We have to keep paying our debts.”
Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.
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