One week after a fire inside a LA City trash truck spread to several cars and destroyed them in the Harvard Heights neighborhood, the owners want to know when they’ll be reimbursed for the damage.
Alex De Leon filmed the burning garbage truck from his home’s balcony on May 13 and watched as the fire quickly spread to the nearby cars on Westmoreland Boulevard near Washington Boulevard.
“I just watched it slowly catch on fire, more and more, and then the flames, it was so bad so crazy,” said De Leon.
LA city firefighters managed to extinguish the flames but not before it destroyed several parked cars including De Leon’s.
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“My cousin his car got burned too, and we’re taking the complaint to the city, we’re not going through the insurance. The process could be sped up more,” said De Leon.
One week later, De Leon says he’s still waiting to hear from the city after filing a claim and losing his only form of transportation.
“They did a poor job cleaning it up, cause there was still a lot of debris left overnight and everybody, all the neighbors were kind of mad cause kids come play with it, it looks like snow the fire retardant looks like snow,” said De Leon.
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On Tuesday, an inspector with the LA Sanitation Department came out to look at the damage but De Leon is wondering why it is taking so long to cleanup the mess and get an answer on when he will be reimbursed for the damage.
“It’s an eye sore, you just come out and it’s still here, what’s the city doing,” said De Leon.
NBC 4 reached out the LA City Sanitation Department to get answers on what caused the fire, when they will cleanup the cars and how long it will take for people to be reimbursed, but did not get a response.
