Six days into a firefight at a massive frozen-food storage facility near downtown Los Angeles, firefighters have yet to enter the building and have begun moving parts of the exterior walls to try to gain access.
Smoke is billowing from the warehouse, which is roughly 500,000-square-foot (46,451-square-meter), covered in solar panels and insulated like a freezer. It’s located across the street from homes in Boyle Heights, a working-class neighborhood east of downtown, and city officials on Monday warned people to stay inside or wear masks due to smoke pollution.
A large warehouse fire can typically be put out in a day, but in a cold storage facility, it can take weeks, authorities said. The fire sparked Wednesday.
Why is it taking so long to put it out?
Fires in cold storage facilities often burn for weeks because their heavily insulated ceilings, roofs and walls make them difficult to extinguish, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Jamie Stewart said.
Firefighters have not been able to enter the building due to the danger posed by floor-to-ceiling heavy-duty steel rack shelving, he said. They also have been unable to quickly ventilate the roof due to the insulation, which is what they would typically do to release gas and smoke and gain visibility inside a warehouse, he said.
The warehouse has rows that are 65-feet (20 meters) tall and 650-feet (200 meters) long loaded with pallets and boxes filled with frozen food, similar to the interior of a Costco or Home Depot warehouse store, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore said during Monday’s news conference. There were about 85 million pounds (38.6 million kilograms) of frozen food stored inside, he said.
“I don’t know that we’ll ever get firefighters inside because the entire roof has been compromised and it is sitting on top of (those) 65-foot towers,” Moore said. “It’s extremely dangerous, and I don’t foresee ever putting our firefighters in that type of danger.”
Firefighters have been stripping away exterior walls on certain sides of the building and dousing it with heavy streams of water.
What caused the fire?
Michigan-based company Lineage, which operates the facility, said in a statement it believes the fire began when subcontractors were working on solar panels on the roof. But the official cause of the fire hasn’t been determined, the company said.
Lineage is working with fire officials investigating the blaze, the statement said.
What is stored at the facility?
The facility, called Big Bear, stores products such as seafood, pork, beef and poultry before they’re shipped to grocery stores and restaurants on the U.S. West Coast, Lineage said on its website.
A message sent to Lineage seeking details about the food and the companies affected by it was not immediately returned.
What are the air quality concerns?
The South Coast Air Quality Management District extended a warning about poor air quality in the area until Tuesday afternoon, saying the blaze continues to produce smoke impacting the neighborhood and areas north and east of the fire. The smoke is carrying microscopic particles known as PM2.5 that can penetrate deep into the lungs.
Light winds will also push the smoke in all directions, potentially impacting other parts of metropolitan LA, the district said.
Residents in the most impacted area were told to avoid vigorous physical activity and close all windows, doors and vents, turn off air conditioning and bring people and pets to an inside room because of the risk of hazardous air. Those who need to go outside in the smoky conditions should wear an N95 or P100 mask, health officials said.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents Boyle Heights, said residents want to know what materials and chemicals were in the warehouse, what burned and what is still burning. She said air quality results should include that information and be released in English and Spanish in terms that regular people can understand.
Jurado said families, workers and other local residents are “seeing the smoke and smelling the odors and finding ash and debris near their homes and businesses.”
“We still do not have enough clear information about what burned and what may still be burning,” she said.
