LA agrees to $21M settlement for families forced from homes by LAPD fireworks detonation

The city of Los Angeles has reached a $21 million settlement with families displaced by a botched Los Angeles Police Department fireworks detonation in 2021. The city has since spent over $10 million on temporary housing for the displaced residents, liability claims as well as some repair and cleanup work.

The blast injured 17 people in South Los Angeles and around 80 people from the predominantly Latinx neighborhood were forced to leave their homes.

19 people will share in the settlement ranging in payments from $100,000 to $2.8 million. The individuals will have up to 90 days to find housing and leave the Level Hotel, where they have been housed by the city for the past three years. Several other families at the hotel are awaiting settlements.

Councilmember Curren Price, whose district includes the site of the explosion, acknowledged the “pain and trauma” of the families, saying “this incident should never have happened and was entirely preventable, and we’re still reeling from it all these years later.”

Three years at the Level Hotel

Maria Velasquez’s home was damaged by the blast and was forced to leave along with her mother, father and teenage daughter.

Her daughter began high school at the height of the pandemic and the family moved to the Level Hotel the following year. Unable to have friends over to study or socialize, Velasquez is angry that her daughter missed out on a happy high school experience.

“My daughter and I have to be sharing a bed and she's 18 now. She had her own room. I feel very, very mad because she didn't have those high school happy years that she was supposed to have,” she said.

Velasquez’s parents were close to retirement when the explosion happened. Her parents own three homes damaged in the explosion, one of which Velasquez rented from her parents. The homes were paid off and her father was ready to enjoy his retirement, splitting his time between Mexico and California. Instead, she said, they were all stuck in a hotel room.

With the settlement, Velasquez says the three months isn’t enough time to repair the damages to their homes and that the amount of money they receive won’t be enough.

The agreed upon settlement will go to Mayor Karen Bass, then the City Controller before funds can be released.

“I'm praying every day that it comes before I lose my sanity,” Velasquez said.