Talk about an explosive situation: Los Angeles firefighters are anxiously monitoring a warehouse filled with 75 tons of confiscated illegal fireworks sitting alongside 27 pallets of flammable hand sanitizer.
Authorities want to move the potentially deadly combination from the Commerce, Calif., warehouse since where it’s been sitting since May, but say they need federal permission and assistance due to the risk. Federal officials told L.A. County firefighters they couldn’t move the fireworks until August, hauling them through Los Angeles in semi-trailers.
“This is a recipe for disaster, and it needs to be dealt with immediately,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement.
Officials are particularly anxious about the risk because a July 1 explosion at a fireworks facility in rural Esparto, Calif., killed seven people and caused a brush fire in the northern California town. And three L.A. County Sheriff’s detectives were killed July 18 in an explosion at a training facility.
The seizure is the largest-ever in state history, California state Fire Marshal Dan Berlant said, with 250 tons initially confiscated. A significant amount of that has already been removed and rendered safe, but 75 tons remain. Hahn, Berlant and LA fire officials have asked the EPA to speed up the removal process of the remainder.
“While we believe that the circumstances that led to the explosion in northern California have been mitigated or are not present at the City of Commerce warehouse … it is understandable that the northern California incident has raised concerns about the continued presence of the items remaining in the Commerce warehouse,” Berlant advised the EPA.
Hahn’s office said the EPA is considering moving the explosives to the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in the Mohave Desert, about 150 miles from Los Angeles. China Lake is a significant Navy explosives training site and also has hazardous materials disposal capabilities, according to authorities.
Most kinds of fireworks are illegal in Los Angeles, and authorities said the importer was “not following regulations” as required by their fireworks license. CalFire licenses fireworks, displays and distributors, and said fireworks over the past 10 years have caused more than $43 million in damages across California.
Citing the ongoing investigation, the L.A. office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms declined to comment.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Recipe for disaster:’ 75 tons of illegal fireworks await removal
