A mysterious smell is hovering over parts of Long Beach. Neighbors say it smells like gas while others say oil.
One thing for sure, neighbors say it can be a stench.
Likely sources, the oil islands just off the beach, or barges anchored in the bay, or the port. At this point, the city says it’s a mystery.
“I walked out and it kind of just hit me,” Konrad Schreiber, a resident, said.
Get Southern California news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC LA newsletters.
Schreiber says it was a stiff smell that took him aback.
“Even now I can smell a hint of it,” Carmen Smith, a Belmont Shores resident, said.
Smith has been smelling the stench for a while. “I’m very sensitive to smells, and it makes me nauseated. So I know the moment we get it.”
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
Neighbors on First and Glendora say they got it this weekend. They were among the first calls into the fire department when the smell was its strongest.
The fire department checked out the area and weren’t able to pinpoint the source of the smell, but they don’t think it was a gas leak.
Many thought it could come from the port, up the beach, but officials say they don’t have any smells or reports of improper venting.
It could be the four oil islands off the coast. Neighbors say there have been smells from there before.
“We do, they call them burps from the oil islands, but this was not that,” Barbara Long, a Belmont Shore resident, said. “It smelled different. I don’t know if it was a little oily or a little fishy but it just didn’t smell like it normally smells.”
Neighbors say they have been dealing with this for years.
“About a month ago the gas smell was so bad that I had to shut my doors and I called the city and they said ‘oh it’s just passing through,’” Smith.
Neighbors think the smells could be coming from passing barges that anchor off the coast.
City officials say it's a possibility. In that case, the smells will pass. But it’s been four days so far and it still stinks.
“For me that’s concerning. I would like to know the origin of the smell. I know I would like to know what I'm inhaling,” Schreiber said.
Certainly they are concerned about their health. The city says there doesn’t appear to be a threat, but they are still searching for the source of that mysterious stench.
