By Mary O’KEEFE

At some point the Palos Fire in Boyle Heights has affected most of the Los Angeles Basin and surrounding communities, like Crescenta Valley, Glendale, Burbank, La Cañada Flintridge and Sunland-Tujunga. 

Over last weekend the smell from the fire engulfed Crescenta Valley although the map from the Air Quality Management Dept. (AQMD) indicated CV area was not affected. CVW reached out to South Coast AQMD to ask when maps would be updated. 

“The South Coast AQMD AQI map relies on methodologies developed by U.S. EPA years ago based on the best available health science to translate measured particle pollution concentrations to AQI levels. While the map gets updated every hour, these methodologies employ averages of data collected over the past several hours as these techniques are developed with health studies that look at health impacts on longer timescales. Therefore, when air quality changes quickly, from good to poor, one may not observe a proportional increase in AQI until air quality has been poor for several hours. However, we always recommend that residents take precautions to reduce their exposure when they smell smoke or see it at ground level,” said a AQMD spokesperson. 

Firefighters continue to battle the Palos Fire in Boyle Heights, which began at the Lineage cold-food storage building and began on June 17 about 2:30 p.m. in the 1400 block of South Los Palos Street. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Saturday for LA County in “response to the ongoing warehouse fire in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, directing state agencies to support local response efforts and help protect public health and safety.”

In a statement released by Mayor Karen Bass, a declaration of local emergency was issued on Saturday to ensure the City has the resources needed to continue battling the fire in Boyle Heights.

On Tuesday, Lineage released an update stating it received encouraging news from LA Fire Dept. (LAFD). 

“While things can always change, [the fire department is] looking to extinguish the fire in days and turn over the building to the owner and our company for clean up as early as Friday. The bravery and expertise we have seen from the firefighters of the LAFD is nothing less than extraordinary.”

LAFD stated on Tuesday that smoke conditions have improved “significantly, and the surrounding community should notice better air quality as firefighting operations continue.”

“The building’s layout, combined with large amounts of foam insulation and structural damage, continues to create unique challenges and limits firefighters’ ability to safely work inside the structure. … Cold storage facilities like this have historically been among the most challenging fires to fight. While crews continue to make steady progress, the safety of all personnel remains the top priority. Although significant progress has been made, crews expect operations to continue as they safely extinguish remaining pockets of fire within the structure,” stated LAFD.

It added that AQMD has been monitoring the air quality since the fire began and monitoring and collecting particulate matter including ozone, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. 

Mobile monitoring for ammonia, hydrogen fluoride and toxic metals (e.g., lead, chromium, arsenic, etc.) was performed multiple times on Wednesday (June 17) and Thursday (June 18) near the structure and in the adjacent neighborhood and no significant levels were observed, stated LAFD.