Nearly a week after a massive warehouse fire erupted in East Los Angeles, firefighters say they’re finally gaining ground, but a new concern is emerging.
Crews spent the weekend battling hot spots inside a half-million-square-foot cold storage facility in Boyle Heights. They used helicopters, water cannons and excavators to tear into the building and reach flames buried deep inside.
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On Sunday, fire officials said they’ve now confined the blaze to one side of the structure, but expect smoke to continue pouring from the site for at least the next few days.
“And now what we have is a free-burning fire with Class A combustibles, ordinary combustibles inside, which would be just your regular byproducts. That’s why you’re seeing a lot of smoke that’s still being generated,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore said Sunday.
Refrigeration causes issues
Despite the headway, Moore said battling the blaze has been a struggle due to the building’s design, which was used to store about 85 million pounds of frozen food.
It was designed with corrugated steel walls filled with foam insulation and interior steel panels. That foam, in particular, has caused issues with it continuing to burn slowly.
The building also used ammonia in its refrigeration system, which officials say may have fueled the fire in the early days.
Fire crews now say they are using unique tactics to keep temperatures in the warehouse low so the frozen foods don’t full thaw and cause a biohazard.
New resources to the rescue
Over the weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared states of emergency, freeing up additional resources as air quality alerts remain in effect across parts of Los Angeles County.
“So now we have all these other resources that are coming to assist us,” Moore said Sunday. “They’ll be arriving tomorrow morning, allowing our firefighters to get a little bit of a break, but they’re also bringing other types of equipment that we can utilize.”
The good news Monday morning: no firefighters or civilians have been injured.
The bad news: officials warn this fire could take days — or even weeks — to fully extinguish.
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