Los Angeles is gasping for air. <\/p>\n
People are inhaling smoke, soot and other airborne detritus following the Boyle Heights warehouse fire<\/a>, and new findings show the poor air quality has put the damage from the LA wildfires of January 2025<\/a> to shame.<\/p>\n Just three days after the fire broke out last month, a monitoring station at Eastman Avenue Elementary School hit a staggering 755 micrograms of PM (particulate matter) 2.5, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.\u00a0<\/p>\n Firefighters battled a massive fire at the storage facility in Los Angeles, and officials had to call in multiple water-dropping helicopters to the scene. Jon Putman for CA Post<\/p>\n The smoke from the warehouse could be seen in the sky from miles way. Getty Images<\/p>\n By contrast, 650 micrograms of fine particles in Pasadena following the Eaton fire in 2025<\/a> was enough to be labeled dangerous.<\/p>\n Residents are still in the dark about exactly what they breathed in after flames ripped through the 490,000-square-foot Lineage warehouse on South Los Palos Street; but one thing is clear: people got sick.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia’s top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Emergency room visits by residents living within 10 miles of the massive blaze more than tripled in the days after the fire compared to the previous two weeks, according to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Michael Jerrett, an environmental health professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, warns that this isn\u2019t your average campfire haze; it\u2019s a dangerous cocktail of toxic components.<\/p>\n \u201cThese contain many particularly toxic components and we know little about how these mixtures affect health,\u201d Jerrett told the LA Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n A nearby monitoring station registered 755 micrograms of PM 2.5, far higher than the fine particles recorded during Altadena\u2019s Eaton fire. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n Several air quality monitors detected concerning amounts of brain-damaging lead and cancer-causing arsenic as a result of toxic paint used in older homes burning during the 2025 LA wildfires. It\u2019s unknown the exact kind of health-damaging chemicals that are currently in the air around Boyle Heights.<\/p>\n During the fire\u2019s early stages, LAFD noted low levels of hydrogen fluoride, a lithium-ion battery byproduct. The mobile monitors deployed by the air district and the US Environmental Protection Agency also detected bromine and chlorine levels below health thresholds.<\/p>\n Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters <\/p>\n California Post News: Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, X<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, WhatsApp<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t
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