LA City Council approves $21 million in settlements over botched LAPD detonation of fireworks

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved over $21 million in settlements to residents impacted by the LAPD's botched detonation of illegal fireworks that led to a catastrophic explosion.

In a 14-0 vote, council members backed the settlements, which cover 19 plaintiffs - victims of the blast which occurred on the block of East 27th Street, one block east of San Pedro Street, on June 30, 2021. Some victims received hundreds of thousands of dollars and others upward of $1 million, according to court documents.

The blast shook the South L.A. neighborhood, leaving 17 people injured and damaging several homes and vehicles. Dozens of residents were displaced.

Some of the families are still waiting for their homes to be repaired. The city has been paying for them to stay at a hotel in downtown L.A.

"The victims of the 27th Street fireworks explosion have endured unimaginable pain and trauma that will last a lifetime," Councilmember Curren Price said in a statement. "Reaching these financial settlements were a crucial step toward their healing, rebuilding their lives, and finding stability and peace."

Price said the blast should never have happened and called it "entirely preventable."

"It is my firm expectation that the LAPD has learned from this disaster and has taken every necessary step to prevent such tragedies from occurring ever again in the future for the sake of our City," he said.

The settlement agreements still need to be signed off by Mayor Karen Bass, and City Controller Kenneth Mejia will need to authorize the funding.

What happened during the explosion?

The Los Angeles Police Department has admitted fault for the explosion, which happened after officers seized a massive cache of illegal fireworks and attempted to detonate them.

The bomb squad packed nearly 40 pounds of the most volatile and dangerous homemade fireworks into an armored containment vessel that was rated for only 33 pounds, according to a federal report. The fireworks were supposed to be detonated safely at the scene because they were too unstable to move but the vessel exploded, and debris rained down on scores of residences, businesses and vehicles.

The explosion injured 10 law enforcement officers and seven residents and damaged 22 homes, 13 businesses and 37 cars and trucks. About 80 people were displaced and some have yet to return to the neighborhood.

Federal investigators said that bomb squad technicians underestimated the weight of the explosive material because they gauged it by sight instead of using a scale, and also ignored the warnings of a team member who said the explosive material should be broken into smaller loads.

Four members of the bomb squad were later disciplined in connection with the incident.

City News Service and the Associated Press contributed to this report.