The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ratified a local emergency declaration to mobilize resources in the ongoing fight against a cold storage fire in Boyle Heights, which has been active for a week, while hundreds of residents - mostly Latino - continue breathing the smoke emanating from the rubble of the huge commercial building and while the air pollution alert is ratified, which extends until Wednesday.

Supervisor Hilda Solis said fighting the fire is “disrupting the lives of thousands of Los Angeles County residents, including the nearby unincorporated area she represented in the First District, East Los Angeles.”

Since June 17, the fire that affected a cold storage facility operated by Lineage Logistics, which had complex refrigeration systems, rooftop solar panel infrastructure and other industrial equipment, has not been controlled, which generated a complex and dangerous extinguishing operation.

Damage to cooling systems caused the release of ammonia, prompting the Los Angeles City Fire Department to order nearby residents to remain indoors for several hours due to the risk of exposure to hazardous materials.

Additionally, smoke advisories were issued for unincorporated East Los Angeles, Commerce, Vernon, Monterey Park, Montebello and parts of downtown Los Angeles.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) subsequently issued an air quality advisory for all of Los Angeles County.

Following initial efforts to extinguish the fire, additional measures were required to facilitate obtaining state resources and support.

On Saturday night, Governor Newsom declared an emergency in Los Angeles to support local efforts.

Air purifiers denied to cancer patients

Additionally, residents who are part of the geographic region that Supervisor Solís represents were turned away by staff from the office of Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, representative of the city's District 14, when they showed up and lined up at her offices on First and Chicago streets.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! You don't live in our area. If you qualify, they'll call you," was the response of a Jurado employee to Mr. Crispin R., a construction worker who had a dislocated shoulder. "You should go to the county. The county has its resources." They only offered him a box of food.

“This councilor is worth mad*e,” added Mrs. Enoe Ochoa, whose daughter Guadalupe Zalapa, 13, is asthmatic and suffers from lupus.

“I explained to them that my daughter's immune system has been compromised by the low quality of the air, and they didn't even approve the blessed air purifier,” she complained to La Opinión. “I live between Lorena and Sixth Streets, and there the smoke still feels quite strong.”

She was told they would call him, email him or take him home.

When? There was no response. On the contrary, an employee of District 14 tried to prevent La Opinión's interviews.

Subsequently, Alejandra Alarcón, director of communications at Ysabel Jurado's office, declared that the delivery of purifiers would be made “as soon as possible.”

Two days and the air purifier that does not arrive

Sick of colon cancer for seven years and protecting her head with a cap from the sun's rays because she has lost all her hair due to chemotherapy, Mrs. Ramona Romo was Monday and Tuesday in the offices of Councilor Jurado.

He signed up first and was told to come back the next day for the air purifier. And on the Tuesday he did so, they demanded a document proving his address, which was different from that on his identification card. She lived on New Jersey Street and said she moved three months ago, along with her daughter Karina, to Michigan Street.

“They told me: tomorrow they will deliver it [the purifier],” but I came and they returned me home. “They assured me that they would bring it to my house, but they never said when,” he said.

The air purifiers were in the parking area of ​​Councilwoman Jurado's offices.

La Opinión questioned Jurado on Monday about the bureaucratic process to grant the air purifiers and the wait for people after several days of the fire. Mayor Karen Bass stepped in to respond:

"No, it's absolutely not right. The councilwoman has been an incredible leader through all of this, she's organized this. People can come here and, frankly, we'll get a list of people if they need it delivered, then we will, and you should know, as the councilwoman mentioned, we're already handling fundraising for a philanthropic fund. Now we have 2 million. We anticipate having more, because the community needs to stick together, and this is a community in particular that has suffered."

He continued, "Think about where we were a year ago and where we are now; people were in the middle of immigration raids, and we know that many people in this community will not have access to other funds that people in other areas have, families with mixed immigration status, etc. So we are going to fight. I am fighting along with the councilwoman, because she is the one who wants to make sure that the people here are not left without anything, and that includes businesses and residents."

For her part, Alejandra Alarcón pointed out that the priority in the delivery of air purifiers were the residents who live closest to the incinerated building and those who live in District 14.

And cancer patients are not a priority? The official was questioned.

"Councilwoman [Ysabel Jurado] said [on Monday] that there are not enough [air purifiers]. We have not been able to obtain the resources that are needed. They have not been enough," Alarcón said.

On June 20, Solís, president of the Board of Supervisors, proclaimed a local emergency over the fire at the property located near major shopping centers in Southern California. It covers an area of ​​491,000 square meters of warehouse space to manage large volumes of inventory.

However, it was not until five days later that 1,000 air purifiers were distributed at Our Lady of Victory Church in East Los Angeles, earning Bass strong criticism from former Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo.

“Do your job”

“DO YOUR JOB,” Carrillo wrote in capital letters in a social media post. “The Boyle Heights fire is one block from the unincorporated area of ​​East Los Angeles.”

“You claim to be our mayor, but while you are busy talking to the press, families in East Los Angeles are breathing toxic air and dangerous particles,” Carrillo added.

"They held a resource fair from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. [on Monday], and thousands of people did not know where to look for help. She [Solís] has not provided the amount of support to help the community; she said they went knocking on doors and that is a lie, especially in the streets closest to the epicenter of the fire," Carrillo told La Opinión.

Business impact

And as if the suffering of the residents surrounding the accident was not enough with the smoke and respiratory diseases, on Tuesday various tow trucks began to tow the cars.

“I have had my auto body business here for 10 years – in front of the building that was burned – and they are taking away five cars that I had to fix,” Martín Ramírez said with tears in his eyes. “I never received a call that I had to move them, and although I begged the police to let me move them, they didn't listen to me.”

Indeed, La Opinión was able to observe several tow trucks from the Central/Northeast Division of the Official Garage of the City of Los Angeles Police (OPG), which is operated by Viertel's Towing, when they towed the cars.

"Look, here I have the keys. I could have moved my car, but they never demanded it. The tow truck just came and took my van," said Alonso Iván, who rents a room to a family that lives at the intersection of Union Pacific and Indiana, the epicenter of the Boyle Heights fire.

This is what the local emergency proclamation says

Send a copy to the director of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services and request that he deem it acceptable under state law, provide recovery assistance under the California Disaster Assistance Act, and expedite access to state and federal resources, as well as any other applicable federal disaster relief programs.