LOS ANGELES—The area under an elevated Los Angeles freeway that burned last weekend, damaging a section of a key thoroughfare in the car-dependent city, was stacked with flammable materials on lots leased by the state through a little-known program that now is under scrutiny.
The blaze Nov. 11 burned about 100 support columns, forcing the closure of a vital mile-long stretch of Interstate 10 near downtown that is used by hundreds of thousands of people daily.
