Los Angeles Cold-Storage Fire Chokes Boyle Heights for 5 Days as Flare-Ups Persist
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 23
Los Angeles Cold-Storage Fire Chokes Boyle Heights for 5 Days as Flare-Ups Persist
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 23
Summary
Five days after the blaze began, smoke from a Los Angeles cold-storage facility still blanketed Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles, leaving residents struggling to breathe and reporting headaches and burning eyes.
Firefighters have reduced the thick black plume to a thinner gray haze, but recurring flare-ups kept smoke drifting through nearby neighborhoods and into homes.
Residents said the worst periods turned streets dark and cut visibility to a few car lengths, while smoke seeped past taped door frames and forced some to wear N-95 masks outdoors.
The prolonged smoke exposure has become the central burden for a working-class, largely Latino area east of downtown, where some neighbors said they stayed despite the conditions to avoid leaving pets behind.