On Saturday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced an emergency declaration aimed at mobilising additional resources to contain a large warehouse fire that produced heavy clouds of smoke across the area.
In a statement, Bass said, “The city and county have opened designated spaces for residents seeking relief from smoke exposure, and we will continue working tirelessly around the clock to fully extinguish this fire,” as she announced the emergency declaration.
A fire broke out on Wednesday at a privately owned cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, leading authorities to issue shelter-in-place orders over concerns about hazardous air quality. Residents in the affected area were advised to keep windows, doors and vents closed, switch off air conditioning systems, and move people and pets to a single indoor room for safety.
At a news conference, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore said crews had already addressed the hazardous materials component of the blaze and were now focusing on managing the biohazard-related challenges.
“We have 85 million pounds of frozen food inside of this facility and the way the building has been laid out, it’s very difficult for us to get in there because there’s zero visibility inside,” Moore said. “Our firefighters are not able to just go in there and start moving pallets.”
The mayor’s emergency declaration seeks recovery assistance through the California Disaster Assistance Act and also calls on the state to fast-track access to resources and additional relief programmes.
Bass emphasised that protecting residents’ health and safety is the main concern, noting that authorities are working to obtain the required assistance to clear hazardous substances from the site and properly dispose of them in order to prevent a potential environmental disaster.
“So this is about prevention,” she said. “This is about protecting your public health.”
