LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared an emergency Saturday to ensure the city gets the resources it needs to fight a large warehouse fire that has sent large plumes of smoke into the air.
“The city and county have opened spaces for families seeking relief from the smoke, and we will continue working around the clock and doing everything possible to put this fire out completely,” Bass said in a news release announcing the emergency declaration.
The fire at a privately owned cold-storage warehouse in the city’s Boyle Heights neighborhood started Wednesday, prompting shelter-in-place orders in the area because of the risk of hazardous air. Residents were told to close all windows, doors and vents, turn off air conditioning and bring people and pets to an inside room.
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore said in a news conference that they have taken care of the hazardous materials portion of the blaze and now they are working on the biohazard challenges.
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“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 declaration asks for recovery help under the California Disaster Assistance Act. She also asked the state to expedite access to resources and other relief programs.
Bass said their chief concern is for the health and safety of the people impacted by the fire, so they are trying to secure the help needed to move the toxic materials away from the area and dispose of them in a way that will avert a major environmental disaster.
“So this is about prevention,” she said. “This is about protecting your public health.”