Clouds of smoke billow from the Lineage cold storage facility in bursts. During brief breaks in the smoke, Ivan Arredondo rushes to cross the yellow caution tape to reach his home after waiting more than 20 minutes near Jim’s Burgers on Indiana Street.
“At night, the smoke gets in even when I close the windows and doors,” Arredondo said as firefighters worked Sunday to extinguish the fire behind him. “It has affected me; my throat has been feeling hoarse, almost like I’m starting to get a cough.”
The Boyle Heights resident hasn’t been able to work for the last five days because his van, which holds his work materials, cannot move in or out of the area blocked by the fire at the Lineage facility.
Arredondo said neither he nor his neighbors had been contacted by city or county officials and wished more support were available.
“I’d like for them to come and give us a hand with some [money] for food or something during this time that we can’t work,” said Arredondo.
Since the fire broke out Wednesday, residents living closest to the facility have endured smoky conditions that they say have disrupted daily life, affected their health and limited their ability to work as firefighters continue battling the blaze.
By Sunday afternoon, the Los Angeles Fire Department had removed large sections of the facility’s exterior walls, allowing crews to better access the fire. Smoke continued to pour out in bursts as residents watched and recorded video from nearby sidewalks.
According to a Sunday evening alert from LAFD, the next phase of operations will focus on accessing and extinguishing the remaining pockets of fire deeper inside the building.
“Although smoke conditions are trending in a positive direction, intermittent increases in smoke may occur as crews open walls and other concealed spaces to locate and extinguish hidden fire,” the department said.
Maria Gonzalez, 49, lives three blocks away from the fire. She says the smell of smoke has left her feeling dizzy, with irritated eyes and caused her daughter to develop a cough.
“We have five days with this fire and it’s hard for us to just be inside the house and not be able to go outside because the smoke is so bad and smells so horrible,” Gonzalez said while recording video near the fire site.
After days of calling to request an air purifier, she said she didn’t receive a call back. She was eventually added to a list when she went to ask for help at one of the smoke relief shelters.
Although she knew shelter space was available, Gonzalez wished local officials could help provide a hotel room and said transporting her family and four dogs to a shelter would be difficult.
That Sunday afternoon, Antonio Chapa, director of field operations for LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis, led a small team of people door-to-door on Indiana Street distributing free air purifiers. The team handed out about 30 units. Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s and her team had also been in residential neighborhoods near the fire site, distributing air purifiers and masks.
Manuel Valle, 84, who lives near Indiana and 1st streets, rode his bike toward Olympic Boulevard to distribute masks throughout the neighborhood.
“My kids don’t like it,” Valle said before joking about his bad knees. “But I’ve gotta do it; it’s me.”
Valle is a member of the Brooklyn Ave. Health Club, a volunteer group for senior citizens that cleans up around the Evergreen Cemetery. He said his efforts near the fire are simply an extension of his work.
Valle added that on Sunday morning, for the first time since the fire started, the smoke drifted directly to his home even though he lives nearly two miles away.
The smoke entering the home of Miguel Ocegueda Castillo, 53, forced him to relocate his son and his elderly mother, who was starting to feel dizzy.
“It’s frustrating because when you’re here for a while, you start to feel like you’re going to throw up and we have already breathed in enough of this smoke,” Castillo said. He has lived directly across from the Lineage building for 15 years.
Castillo said no one from the local government has reached out to him to offer any support.
“No one, no one has come to talk, no one has come and asked if I need anything,” Castillo said. “I don’t know what the local government is waiting for- for a tragedy to occur or something more serious or what… on top of what is already going on.”
For now, Castillo said his focus remains on his family. He goes in and out of the house to grab necessities, but says that he’s been forced to work less in order to do so.
