Updated at 4:51 p.m. on Wednesday, July 15
A new coalition is urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to expand the response to the Lineage warehouse fire, arguing that its impacts extend far beyond Boyle Heights and East LA.
The group, known as Protect LA Now, is using the term “Eastside+” to describe the broader area they say was also impacted by the thick smoke and “rotten odors,” including Maywood, Huntington Park, Cudahy, Commerce, Montebello, Monterey Park and El Sereno.
On Wednesday, Protect LA Now sent a letter to the governor calling on him to issue a disaster zone declaration and a mandatory evacuation order for the residents most impacted by the Lineage fire.
“We’re not negating at all what’s been happening at the center of the storm, but [we’re] acknowledging the impact of the plume path,” said Alma Marquez, a Monterey Park business owner and founder of Protect LA Now, which grew out of her existing Latina nonprofit La Comadre Network.
Marquez said she experienced severe headaches and wheezing as she and her family sheltered in place in Monterey Park. “I did everything they told us to do. I was home. I hunkered down,” she said. Marquez, who along with her daughter suffer from asthma, chose to self-evacuate her family and her mother in Huntington Park.
“We left to be able to get some help,” she said.
About 40 people gathered at a press conference Tuesday at the East LA Civic Center, urging Newsom to visit the impacted neighborhoods and expand the response to the fire. They held signs that read “Mandatory Evacuations Now!” and “Gov. Newsom We Need You.” One attendee held up a toy rat, calling attention to the rodents that have been spotted in the area.
The coalition called for mandatory evacuation orders with upfront relocation vouchers while tons of food waste continue to be removed from the facility. Members also demanded independent air monitoring and testing for gases and metals, and a full account of what was stored, burned and released from the warehouse fire.
Nora Saenz, a Southeast LA activist who lives in Bell, invited Newsom to “ground zero” to “smell what the residents are being exposed to.”
“This is not an East LA issue. This is not a Boyle Heights issue. This is a regional issue,” Saenz said. “This is a time where all elected leaders need to get together, work together, put [in place] a mandatory evacuation order so homeowners can get home insurance protections.”
“We are exposed not only to toxins, but we are exposed to every single environmental injustice that we’ve had in this history of the state,” she added.
mark! Lopez of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice said that many in the region are “living life like it’s normal.”
“The worst part about this is that it is normal in our communities. … Environmental racism is normal in our communities,” said Lopez, who lives in East LA.
“We want to remind people that this is still going on,” Lopez said. If you live out in the San Gabriel Valley, just because you can’t see the smoke, [it] doesn’t mean it’s not going on,” Lopez said.
The issue, Lopez said, extends to the San Fernando Valley and as far as Riverside County. “It smells and for the blocks that are closest, it never goes away. We need evacuation now,” Lopez said.
“We need proper and community engaged oversight now and we need Lineage out of our communities,” he said.
