LOS ANGELES (CNS) – 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 that has burned for a week.
Board Chair Hilda Solis, who represents East L.A. cities and nearby unincorporated areas, enacted a joint emergency declaration alongside L.A. Mayor Karen Bass on Saturday. Tuesday’s vote by the Board of Supervisors was largely a formality, but Solis led an extensive presentation with various county department heads about the county’s response to the fire and its impacts on area residents.
She said the ongoing fire fight is “disrupting the lives of thousands … of L.A. County residents, including the nearby unincorporated area I represent in the First District, East Los Angeles.”
Solis also noted impacts in areas such as Vernon, Commerce, Monterey Park, Montebello, and parts of the San Gabriel Valley. She also detailed the county’s response to the fire, noting the deployment of Los Angeles County Fire Department teams and equipment assisting the LA. city department, the distribution of air purifiers and masks to affected county residents and establishment of a shelter at City Terrace Park.
In addition to ratifying the emergency declaration, the motion approved by the board Tuesday also “directs a full investigation into the facility, future safety compliance and claims process that needs to be established to help our residents,” Solis said.
The local emergency declarations ordered several measures, including:
— Activating emergency operations to take “such steps as may be necessary or appropriate for the protection of life, health or property.”
— Directing certain departments impacted by this event, and its ongoing effects, to conduct damage assessments and collect any relevant cost estimates, and;
— Requesting that the governor waive regulations that may hinder response and recovery efforts; that recovery assistance be made available under the California Disaster Assistance Act; and that the state expedite access to state and federal resources and any other appropriate disaster relief programs.
Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted a state of emergency over the weekend to mobilize state resources, as well as to assist in post-recovery efforts.
The local declaration, in part, authorizes the county, just like the city, to receive funds and other resources that they need.
During a special county board meeting on Monday, Solis thanked first responders for their efforts in addressing the Lineage warehouse fire. The fire is within the city’s jurisdiction, but more than 250 households are immediately impacted in East L.A., the county’s unincorporated area.
Solis also gave a shout out to residents who have been so resilient during the extended firefight, and made a commitment to advocate for them.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Solis said more than 1,000 people attended a county resources fair held for residents in the area on Monday, and about 1,100 air purifiers were distributed.
Solis took some criticism Friday from former Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, who represented Boyle Heights from 2022 to 2024 and called on Solis to do more to assist residents impacted by the fire.
“DO YOUR JOB,” Carrillo wrote in a social media post on Friday. “The Boyle Heights fire is one block from unincorporated East Los Angeles.”
“You claim to be our `Mayor,’ but while you’re busy talking to the press, families in East Los Angeles are breathing toxic air and dangerous particulate matter,” Carrillo added.
As the fire continued burning, air quality concerns have persisted for large swaths of Los Angeles, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and South Coast Air Quality Management District have not detected anything beyond normal combustible material typical after a fire, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman said.
A special Particle Pollution Advisory issued by the AQMD was extended until at least 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.
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