LA Mayor Bass declares emergency to secure resources to help fight warehouse fire
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared an emergency Saturday to secure additional resources to fight a large warehouse fire that has sent heavy 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 statement announcing the declaration.
The fire broke out Wednesday at a privately owned cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights, leading to shelter-in-place orders as a precaution against hazardous air. Residents were told to keep windows, doors, and vents closed, turn off air conditioning, and move people and pets into interior rooms.
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore said in a press conference that crews have completed the hazardous materials phase and are now dealing with biohazard issues. “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.”
Bass’s emergency declaration requests recovery assistance under the California Disaster Assistance Act and asks the state to speed up access to resources and relief programs.
She said the priority is protecting public health and safely removing and disposing of toxic materials to prevent an environmental disaster. “So this is about prevention,” she said. “This is about protecting your public health.”
