Millions of pounds of rotting food inside a fire-damaged storage warehouse in Los Angeles have been creating foul odors in one of the city’s neighborhoods.

A blaze broke out at a cold-storage facility operated by Lineage in Boyle Heights on June 17, before finally being put out a week later on June 24. The site contained over 80 million lbs of beef, poultry, pork and seafood that is still having an impact nearly two months on.

“It smells really bad, like really bad… to the point that you want to throw up,” a local security guard named Mesha told the BBC, comparing the odor to a dead body.

Lisett Navarrete, a 34-year-old who lives in the area, told the Los Angeles Times that the smell is so bad that “you don’t even want to have breakfast.”

“We can’t run away from it, it’s all around us,” she added.

A city-commissioned report obtained by NBC 4 recently detailed concerns about green bottle flies at the site, as they can reproduce rapidly in food waste and hot weather.

​“Green bottle flies can cause myiasis, which is an infectious disease caused by the flies laying eggs in open wounds of either humans or animals,” the report, which was prepared by a pest control company, warns. “This disease can cause irritation, ulcers, and in some cases even death.”​

Alexis Sicairos, who runs a coffee stand in the area, told the BBC that workers at the warehouse stopped visiting his business after the fire.

“Due to the fire, obviously most of them aren’t here,” he said. “So we lost those customers, but we also lost customers that don’t want to be around the smell, the smoke, the flies. ​

“It’s understandable. But we have to keep paying our bills, so we’re still here.”​

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who is heading into an election this year, told the BBC that she understands that residents are frustrated. ​

“They deserve transparency, clear communication, and meaningful support,” she said. “Since day one, I have been in Boyle Heights listening to residents, meeting with families, and making sure their voices guide our response.”

​Lineage, which operates the warehouse, was given a deadline of August 13 to complete the post-fire clean-up at the facility.

According to the company’s website, the site contained around 88 million lbs of food at the time of the fire, which cleanup crews are working to remove. The firm says that the process to remove the food waste is around 85 percent complete and that fly and rodent-control devices have been rolled out to combat pests.

Hundreds of fly traps have also been distributed to community members. ​

A spokesperson for the company told the BBC that Lineage could pay as much as $100 million for the cleanup.

The Independent has contacted Lineage for comment.