Smoke clouded swaths of Los Angeles for a sixth day Monday, after a fire broke out at a warehouse in the Boyle Heights area.
The stubborn blaze was reported Wednesday around 2:30 p.m. on the roof of a 500,000-square-foot cold food storage facility on South Los Palos Street. It prompted shelter-in-place orders and the declaration of a state of emergency over the weekend.
The fire is still actively producing smoke and impacting air quality throughout the region, the South Coast Air Quality Management District said in a statement Sunday — extending its particle pollution advisory into Monday morning.
The agency said its sensors showed air particulates had reached “very unhealthy” levels over the weekend, in the areas of central Los Angeles County, San Gabriel Valley, east San Fernando Valley and northwest San Bernardino Valley.
Smoke was predicted to impact areas north and east of the fire until Monday morning, it added. Local residents were urged to limit their exposure by remaining indoors with their windows and doors closed and advised to run air conditioning or air purifying units, where possible.
“Residents have lived through days of smoke, shelter-in-place orders, disruptions to daily life, and ongoing questions about what this means for their health and well-being,” said Ysabel Jurado, the council member who represents Boyle Heights.
“I will continue pushing every level of government to bring the resources this community needs so that emergency response, air monitoring, hazardous debris removal, environmental remediation, and public health protections move forward with urgency,” Jurado added.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a state of emergency Saturday in response to the fire.
“California is mobilizing to support Los Angeles as firefighters and emergency personnel continue their work to contain this fire and protect surrounding communities,” Newsom said in a news release. “While local officials continue to lead this response, the State of California is prepared to safeguard public health, support emergency operations, and assist impacted residents.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also declared a local emergency Saturday.
“This is a major, multi-jurisdictional incident. I’m issuing an emergency declaration to ensure the City has the resources it needs as this operation continues and to keep the community safe,” she said in a statement.
“The City and County have opened spaces for families seeking relief from the smoke, and we will continue working around the clock and doing everything possible to put this fire out completely.”
The site is used by Lineage, a cold storage and logistics company, which said it would donate $2 million to the nonprofit California Community Foundation to help those impacted by the fire.
“Lineage’s top priority is the health and safety of our team members, partners, and the communities in which we live and operate,” the company said. “We are also continuing to work with local officials on providing air purifiers, food and other resources to the community,” it added.
The company said in a statement it did not own the warehouse. “We are the tenant-operator of the warehouse building and lease the roof to a third-party solar company, which is responsible for operating and maintaining the array. We believe the fire originated on the roof on Wednesday while the company’s subcontractors were servicing the solar array,” it said.
No investigation into the fire’s start has yet begun.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said Sunday it was making “significant progress” to battle the blaze and that its crews had removed sections of the exterior wall allowing for more effective access to interior fire areas, giving them the ability to apply large volumes of water.
“Smoke conditions have improved significantly and are expected to continue improving as firefighters make progress extinguishing the fire,” it said. “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.”
Images on social media showed the smoke shrouding the Dodger Stadium on Sunday, creating “an acrid, nasty haze,” posted Ben Bolch, a California Post senior college sports reporter.
“Not sure I’d want to sit here and watch as a fan, much less play the game, unless conditions improve,” he added. The haze later cleared with the game going ahead.

Firefighters battled a stubborn cold-storage warehouse fire in Boyle Heights for a fifth day Sunday as residents’ concerns over air quality continue to mount.
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore said fire crews made significant progress in combating the blaze. If progress continues at this rate, it should be out by week’s end.
A Fire Department spokesperson said Sunday evening that although crews have removed sections of exterior walls, allowing greater access to the fire, the property’s construction — such as supports of a collapsed roof — continues to create “complex and unstable conditions that require a cautious and methodical approach.”
“Firefighters are operating with a strong emphasis on safety and are closely monitoring potential structural failure hazards,” spokesperson Jamie Stewart said. “Fire conditions along the exterior portions of the structure have been largely knocked down. The next phase of operations will focus on accessing and extinguishing remaining fire within more interior areas of the building. Smoke conditions have improved significantly and are expected to continue improving as firefighters make progress extinguishing the fire.”
However, Stewart cautioned that although the air quality is improving, smoke conditions in the area may intermittently increase as firefighters try to extinguish flames in concealed spaces.
The upbeat tone struck by city officials belied the ongoing concerns from neighbors and people across large swaths of L.A. about the smoke that has poured from the building for days. A particle pollution advisory issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District remains in effect through 12:30 p.m. Monday.
Regulatory monitors show that air quality levels ranged from “unhealthy for sensitive groups” to “very unhealthy” since Saturday night in the areas of Los Angeles County, the San Gabriel Valley and northwest San Bernardino Valley. There were complaints across social media about poor air quality from residents in those neighborhoods.
East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights and the San Gabriel Valley will continue to feel the effects of the smoke on Monday.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom jointly declared a state of emergency Saturday because of the unhealthful air quality.
Moore said at a news conference Sunday afternoon that the declaration frees up funds that can bring in more resources in the region. Moore said he is asking for 12 additional fire engines and six additional trucks to help support firefighters.
“We’re going to continue to be working this fire throughout the clock,” Moore said. “I’m hoping by the end of this week, we’ll have this thing completely done and turned over to the building owner and building occupant.”
Late Sunday night, the city announced new road closures and traffic restrictions near the fire on the 1400 block of South Los Palos St.
There are street closures at the intersections of Union Pacific Ave. and Calzona St., Union Pacific Ave. and Indiana St., Noakes St. and Calzona St., as well as Noakes St. and Indiana St.
Other intersections are only accessible by local residents, employees and others who need to be in the area.
Traffic control points have been put in place at Olympic Blvd. and South Los Palos St., Olympic Blvd. and Prado St., Olympic Blvd. and La Puerta St., Olympic Blvd. and Indiana St., as well as Olympic Blvd. and South Alma Ave. No southbound traffic is permitted, though residents who live north of Union Pacific Ave. are allowed access.
No eastbound traffic is allowed at the intersections of Mirasol St. and Union Pacific Ave. nor at Mirasol St. and Noakes St., though traffic heading north and south is permitted. Westbound traffic is prohibited at Hicks Ave. and Union Pacific Ave. Westbound traffic is also prohibited at Hicks Ave. and Noakes St., though commercial vehicles serving local businesses are allowed, as they are eastbound and westbound on Noakes St.
“Members of the public are encouraged to avoid the area and use alternate routes whenever possible,” Stewart said. “Reducing traffic congestion around the incident will help ensure firefighters, emergency vehicles and utility crews can safely and efficiently access the scene.”
The blaze at the 500,000-square-foot commercial building began Wednesday. The corrugated steel walls are filled with dense foam. Moore suggested Sunday that the steel has protected most of the foam from burning, but the fire has emitted gases despite efforts to fight the flames from the ground and with helicopters.
Overnight Saturday and into Sunday, firefighters removed portions of the wall to improve access and to allow firefighters to advance into areas that were otherwise inaccessible. The department also brought in helicopters capable of carrying larger quantities of water to the site.
Moore said the facility has remained at 45 degrees, which mitigates the risk of it becoming a biohazard due to food spoilage. “The bio concerns are not there,” he said. “It is spoiling, but not at the levels that we were afraid of.”
Officials have said firefighters are still dealing with poor visibility inside the facility due to its complicated layout.
Bass said at the news conference that the building’s tenant, Lineage Logistics, has committed $2 million to help residents and businesses affected by the persistent fire.
However, City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said that “Boyle Heights did not create this crisis, and Boyle Heights should not be left to carry the burden of cleaning it up on their own.” She added that the city should hold the company accountable for a safe cleanup and for mitigating any environmental hazards.
Residents say they are feeling the effects of the fire, which has sent large plumes of smoke into the air.
At Yia Caffe, a coffee shop a few blocks from the warehouse, manager Leo Miguel said the smoke has been affecting both customers and employees. Miguel said many customers are opting to grab their drinks and go rather than linger outside as smoke drifts through the neighborhood.
The smoke smells “like chemicals and plastic,” Miguel said, adding that it leaves his mouth feeling dry and makes it “hard to breathe.” Business has slowed since the fire began Wednesday, he said, and conditions don’t appear to be improving.
“I don’t think it’s getting better,” Miguel said. “If anything, it’s getting worse.”
Hazy conditions were visible at Dodger Stadium, where manager Dave Roberts told reporters the Dodgers’ game against the Baltimore Orioles was expected to start on time as long as air quality did not deteriorate.
Wil Blake, who lives a block from Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, said he woke up Sunday morning to the smell of “soot and smoke” in the air, which reminded him of last year’s wildfires.
Blake said he keeps his windows open because his air conditioner has been out of service in recent weeks. He needed to shut them after noticing the smoke. He also wore a mask outdoors and went to a nearby Planet Fitness because he “needed to get some filtered air.”
At the city’s smoke relief center at Pecan Recreation Center, Ashley Campos, 18, said her family left their home on Hicks Ave. near the fire because of health concerns. Campos said her 44-year-old mother has asthma, her 9-year-old brother has epilepsy, and her 68-year-old grandmother is battling cancer.
Campos said the family lives about two blocks from the warehouse and could smell smoke inside their home. They looked into buying an air purifier but found them either too expensive or unavailable for immediate delivery.
“We didn’t want to even risk it,” Campos said of staying home. Her father has remained at the family’s house “just in case anything happens,” she said.
Campos said the family has struggled to obtain a purifier and has heard similar concerns from neighbors. “It’s really hard,” she said. “My dad tried looking for one, but he couldn’t find them.”
Michael Kleinman, a toxicologist and professor at UC Irvine’s Wen School of Population and Public Health, said the danger zone from the smoke is dependent on how fast the wind is blowing and in what direction. He warned that throat irritation, stinging or watering of the eyes, or a runny nose can indicate a more serious reaction.
The potential biohazard posed by millions of pounds of spoiling food is “something that’s really unprecedented,” Kleinman said.
“It’ll certainly be smelly and noxious, and bacteria and things are going to be growing in it,” he said. “Obviously not getting in contact with it is an issue, but if the stuff starts to burn, it adds this biological material to the plumes, and you’re going off into territory that really is very untested.”
Robbie Munroe, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, suggested that one of the reasons the reach of this particular fire seems so broad is that light winds continue shifting directions from morning to afternoon.
“The location of Boyle Heights, in the middle of the L.A. Basin, usually experiences morning winds from the south or southeast, which might impact a larger portion of the downtown area, depending on how widespread the smoke has been,” he said. “It could get up to Glendale or the West Hollywood area.
“As it turns toward the afternoon, you get the sea breeze kick in, that’s southwest to west usually, that would take it further inland or away from the coast.”
A reporter for The Times noted that traces of smoke were evident Sunday morning in Simi Valley.

Smoke spread over the Los Angeles region on Sunday as a fire at a cold-storage warehouse in the Boyle Heights neighborhood continued to smolder for a fifth day.
Firefighters are making progress at stopping the blaze, and the smoke may soon begin to clear, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department said on Sunday afternoon.
Air quality in central Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley continued to be affected by particulates in the smoke. The South Coast Air Quality Management District extended a warning about poor air quality until midday on Monday and indicated that the wind could disperse smoke as far as Riverside and Orange Counties.
In a statement, the air quality agency said that particulates had reached “very unhealthy” levels in some areas on Saturday night and Sunday. The agency was expecting the most significant smoke effects north and east of the fire, and in the San Gabriel Valley and parts of the western Inland Empire.
Major sporting events on Sunday, including the World Cup match between Belgium and Iran at SoFi Stadium and the Los Angeles Dodgers game against the Baltimore Orioles at Dodger Stadium, continued as scheduled.
The blaze at the Boyle Heights warehouse, east of downtown Los Angeles, broke out on Wednesday afternoon and has been challenging to fight because the building’s walls are thick and insulated, like a freezer. Firefighters have also needed to extract ammonia, which was used as a refrigerant, and millions of gallons of frozen food.
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ATLANTA — Since most butterflies live a short time, fluttering between colorful flowers for a few weeks before dying, a few rare exceptions have stumped scientists. Now, some long-lived tropical butterfly species are shedding light on the secrets of longevity.
Butterflies belonging to the Heliconius genus, which inhabit the tropical rainforests of South and Central America, have lifespans that vary wildly. The Dione juno butterfly lives for 14 days after reaching adulthood, while Heliconius hewitsoni lives for 348 days — nearly 25 times longer.
Other Heliconius species also have impressively lengthy lives, enduring between 106 to 277 days, according to a study on the phenomenon published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. Some scientists have speculated that Heliconius’ extended adulthood is due to the insects consuming an enhanced diet, rather than relying purely on carbohydrates like other butterflies.
But the exact reasons behind this unexpected longevity have been unclear, which is what inspired Dr. Jessica Foley, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral scholar at Tufts University’s Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston, to take an in-depth look at the intriguing butterfly genus.
“We see vast differences in lifespan across the animal kingdom — adult mayflies famously live only for a day, whereas some whales and sharks can live for hundreds of years,” Foley wrote in an email. “I’m interested in the evolutionary basis of these kinds of lifespan differences because they might hold insights relevant for healthy aging in humans.”
Foley and her colleagues discovered that while nutrition has its part to play, some Heliconius have also evolved an anti-aging mechanism the researchers are still unraveling, and how it could be a model for understanding human longevity.
Evolving a special diet
Studying the “extreme agers” of the animal kingdom is an uphill task for scientists, especially if they have to wait centuries for a species to reach what is considered old, Foley said.
Lesser-studied Heliconius butterflies presented the perfect case study since researchers could observe their entire life cycle in about a year. Only one other known butterfly, Myscelia cyanaris, lives longer than Heliconius, with a maximum lifespan of 380 days, but there is little data to suggest why.
Foley and her collaborators combined an expansive dataset to look at lifespan and aging patterns across the Heliconius genus, using information collected from commercial butterfly houses and mark, release and recapture studies, as well as controlled experiments.
The authors wanted to see whether removing an unusual food source from the diets of these butterflies would shorten their lifespan, she added.
Most adult butterflies feed exclusively on flower nectar, fueled only by carbohydrates rather than the amino acids and lipids — used for egg and sperm needed to reproduce — they received from plant material as caterpillars before metamorphosing.
“The general evolutionary strategy is to reproduce as much as they can until those resources are spent, which doesn’t take very long for these small insects,” Foley said of the lipids and amino acids. “They usually die soon after this finite resource is used up.”
However, most Heliconius species have adapted to feed on pollen, even as adults, which could provide the insects with more energy, the authors concluded. Pollen also contains lipids, which help with energy storage but also boost immunity.
The authors closely studied the relationship between Heliconius and pollen to see what health benefits the butterflies gained from their diets.
“I wanted to understand the real extent of this lifespan extension in Heliconius, to understand whether it was also accompanied by slowed physiological aging, and to figure out whether they would still show a lifespan extension — indicating evolved mechanisms of longevity — even without the pollen,” Foley said.
Of the 28 Heliconius species the researchers studied, only six were non-pollen-feeding, and they lived between 14 to 98 days. But the team’s observations showed that even when pollen was withheld, the Heliconius butterflies still lived much longer than their non-pollen feeding relatives.
An evolutionary mystery
The team also used a unique device to measure age-related decline in older butterflies with a grip-strength test. They built a device called “The Pullinator,” or a perch lined with sandpaper that was attached to a lightweight wooden base.
“We placed this on a lab balance, zeroed the balance, and then gently held a butterfly by the wings and lowered it until it grasped the perch,” Foley said. “We then tugged until it let go — but as the butterfly tugged, the balance would drop negative, and we could use the maximum negative reading as an indication of how much weight the butterfly could carry before it let go.”
The Heliconius hecale butterfly species, which can live up to 277 days, showed little or no physiological decline during the grip-strength test, while the closely related Dryas iulia, which doesn’t feed on pollen and lives for 98 days, showed signs of age-related decline. Heliconois hecale also maintained body mass and muscle function for longer, even when deprived of pollen.
The findings showed that overall, many pollen-feeding Heliconius species had longer lifespans and slower rates of aging, suggesting that nutrition is an important factor. Pollen-derived amino acids also help the butterflies continually produce more eggs as adults, lengthening their reproductive lifespans, Foley said.
But given that permanently removing pollen from the diets of the butterflies seemed to have no negative impact on their longevity, the researchers suspect that, much like the insects evolved a pollen-based diet, they have also evolved to live longer.
“We show that these butterflies do have evolved mechanisms of longevity, and that they also seem to have evolved a delayed physiological decline, making them excellent new models for studying the mechanisms allowing for long life,” Foley said. “However, we do not yet know what these mechanisms are.”
Longevity in the animal kingdom
Foley’s colleagues are interested in investigating the more mysterious longevity mechanisms of Heliconius, as well as the butterflies’ robust cognition — they have large brains and impressive long-term memory, even as they age, she said.
Studying worms, flies and yeast has enabled scientists to better understand how the mechanisms of aging work in humans. Looking at more examples from the animal kingdom can be used to identify solutions that evolution has found for the problem of aging, Foley said.
The new research shows that Heliconius can be a potential model insect group for studying increased longevity, including adaptations that could slow aging and have potential applicability to humans, said Dr. Jaret C. Daniels, curator and interim associate director for the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Daniels was not involved in the study.
“This study reinforces the utility of many insect groups and important model organisms for various fields of research,” Daniels said in an email. “Since many insects are often overlooked or underappreciated/undervalued by humans, studies like this can help change that perspective.”

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — All over this Southeast Asian city are vestiges of the multibillion-dollar online scam industry, which thrived here for more than half a decade until a recent government crackdown.
There are luxurious high-rise towers overlooking the Mekong River, where entire floors are now deserted following police raids that cleared out the illicit operations hidden there. Disintegrating cardboard boxes and bits of Styrofoam litter the entrance of a branch of Prince Supermarket, after its parent company—the massive Cambodian conglomerate Prince Holding Group—was slapped with U.S. sanctions for allegedly running industrial-scale scam compounds.
But the crackdown has created a secondary crisis: thousands of stranded foreign workers transported to Cambodia by the online scam operators and forced to work as hostage employees are now roaming the streets of Phnom Penh, after being freed when the scam operations closed. NGOs, including Amnesty International, say many of the workers are victims of human trafficking. They are now at the center of a silent humanitarian crisis in Cambodia, aid workers say, left with few options and abandoned amid the highly-publicized government crackdown.
“The government has only addressed half of this problem,” said Mark Taylor, a consultant on human trafficking issues who previously led a USAID-backed program in Cambodia. “But it is totally ignoring what fueled that problem,” he added, namely the tens of thousands of vulnerable migrants that were lured into the scam industry and are now at risk of being re-trafficked.
Cambodia was an epicenter of the global scam industry until late last year, when foreign pressure pushed the government to mount a large-scale crackdown on these operations. The scams, which operate online, work by convincing victims to put their money into fraudulent investment schemes. As victims keep depositing funds, they see profits, convincing them to put more in – until, one day, all their money evaporates.
The FBI and others have termed these schemes “pig-butchering” scams, and according to the agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, Americans were defrauded of more than $20 billion last year through these types of scams. This number has been growing every year, according to the FBI’s data.
Behind these online operations was a system of coercion.
More than two dozen migrants from Indonesia, Uganda, Ghana and Sierra Leone NPR interviewed recounted similar stories: they were offered jobs with decent wages, free accommodation and food, only to find themselves held against their will and forced to meet strict quotas as scam workers.
Shuiab, a 24-year-old Ugandan man, said he was promised $850 a month as a delivery driver before being taken to a compound hidden behind a casino and forced to scam Americans. Another man, Wilson, said he was electrocuted for failing to meet his quotas. NPR is identifying both men by their first names only because they fear reprisals.
“They have a place called the black room,” Wilson said, referring to the owners of the scam centers. “Inside that black room, they can do anything to you.”
United Nations agencies, Amnesty International and other organizations have long documented the use of forced labor and torture within this industry. In a report on the Cambodian government’s scam crackdown this June, Amnesty International said it had interviewed 73 people released from compounds in recent months, and determined all were victims of human trafficking.
Last October, the U.S. sanctioned a massive Cambodian conglomerate called Prince Holding Group and indicted its chairman, Chen Zhi, for allegedly directing “forced-labor” scam compounds in the country and laundering billions in criminal proceeds. In January, Chen was extradited from Cambodia to China, where he was born, with a bag over his head.
Chen’s lawyers have denied any wrongdoing and are fighting the case in U.S. courts.Beijing has continued to extradite several other alleged Chinese scam kingpins from Cambodia – bosses who were once thought to be untouchable, researchers with knowledge of these organized crime groups said. Alongside the police raids, the downfall of these tycoons put pressure on scam companies, which have relocated from Cambodia in recent months, researchers and former scam workers said.
The collapse of these tycoons quickly emptied the infrastructure they left behind. Some of the scam compounds in Cambodia were like cities themselves, massive and self-contained, with supermarkets, karaoke bars, barber shops, pharmacies, and other services inside them. One site, which NPR visited in March after it was emptied out, could accommodate 20,000 workers, according to the UK government which sanctioned its owners later that month.
With every compound that closed, tens of thousands of migrants were released onto the streets – without money, support, shelter, or even access to free food or water, according to aid workers. Instead, they’ve been met by a hostile bureaucracy. The Cambodian government has insisted that they pay fines for overstaying their visa, but those fines – $10 a day – can add up to thousands.
Embassies are working on behalf of their citizens to get the Cambodian government to waive the overstay fines, but the process is slow. While the stranded migrants wait, there is only one shelter for victims of trafficking in Cambodia that they can stay in, but it is full, with a waitlist of hundreds.
In recent weeks, NGOs helping the workers say the Cambodian authorities have stepped up detention of migrants for visa violations, cramming them in overcrowded detention facilities.
“Rather than identifying and supporting trafficking victims, Cambodian authorities have consistently treated people fleeing or being released from scamming compounds as irregular migrants – detaining them in substandard immigration detention facilities without access to lawyers or embassies,” the Amnesty report said, adding this is “in direct violation of…international obligations.”
In response to questions from NPR, Interior Ministry spokesman Touch Sokhak rejected the criticism, saying authorities have “rescued” hundreds of thousands of scam workers, including trafficking victims, and repatriated them “with the utmost care, in accordance with the law.”
But accounts from inside Cambodia’s detention system tell a starkly different story. In a text message shared with NPR by aid workers, a former scam worker described conditions inside one facility: free drinking water is available for only one hour a day and otherwise costs $2. He asked not to be named for fear of reprisal.