Good morning, it’s Tuesday, June 23 and you can expect unseasonably hot weather today. Tomorrow will be worse.
1. How a scientist gauges air quality risk for his family.
One of the biggest questions surrounding the Boyle Heights warehouse fire is what, exactly, is burning, and whether traditional air quality monitoring measures are capturing the full extent of the hazards. This sense of the unknown has brought a dark feeling of déjà vu for some, dredging up memories from the January 2025 firestorm. Even those who consider themselves savvy news consumers have struggled to make sense of the official guidance.
The blaze — which is now in its seventh day — is in a massive cold-storage facility that’s essentially a giant refrigerator, with a solar panel-covered roof and corrugated steel walls filled with dense foam insulation. There were early concerns about the ammonia in the refrigeration system, though that chemical has since been moved offsite, authorities said, but other potential hazards remain.
Yesterday, my colleague Antonia Cereijido wrote about the unique and acute fears of Boyle Heights and East L.A. residents living in the shadow of the crisis with uncertain guidance from the authorities.
An aerial view of the fire — and smoke plume — taken on Saturday. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Which leaves people across Los Angeles – those in the plume this time, those for whom the smoke has been intermittent, those who know that there will always be a next fire – with the question: What is the best way to make sense of their air quality risks?
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