Rats are running rampant outside — and inside — Los Angeles City Hall, and city officials are racing to get the infestation under control amid a “terrifying” typhus outbreak.
The rodents have turned up dead in the building’s ceiling and scurrying around City Council President Herb Wesson’s office, according to the Los Angeles Times. Outside, a rat was recently spotted gnawing through a pumpkin put out for decoration at the building’s Halloween party.
And in November, city attorney Elizabeth Greenwood contracted typhus while working in the downtown office, CBS Los Angeles reported.
“It was terrifying,” Greenwood told the station Wednesday. “I thought I was going to die and couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me.”
She has yet to return to work for fear of the conditions in the building.
In October, officials declared a typhus outbreak in downtown LA. The disease spreads when fleas bite rats and become infected with a particular type of bacteria. Humans can contract the illness through flea bites or the feces of the infected insects, when it’s rubbed into cuts or scrapes in the skin, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Wesson told the LA Times that the outbreak needs to stop — and submitted a motion Wednesday asking the city to report back on the “scope of vermin and pest control issues” at City Hall and adjoining city buildings.
“Employees shouldn’t have to come to work worried about rodents,” Wesson said he told the outlet, adding that he “intend(s) to do whatever it is we need” to eliminate the problem.
That could include ripping out all the building’s carpets — for which Wesson is seeking a cost estimate. His motion also calls for a tally of live plants in every city-owned or -operated building downtown.
He’s also pushing for a policy requiring employees to secure their food after hours and for custodians to toss out food that’s left out.
Greenwood applauded the move.
“That carpet is years old — and, more than likely, it has fleas and flea eggs in it,” she told the Times. “I would really like to see the building fumigated for both rats and fleas. … I hope they don’t wait.”