The Brief

Champion bodybuilder. Hollywood superstar. Governor of California.

Not a bad resume.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has achieved more than most of us could ever hope to. And he's sharing some of his secrets to success in his new book Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life.

Morning Edition host A Martinez spoke with Schwarzenegger about his latest project.

A Martinez: When did becoming useful become something that you thought was important?

Arnold Schwarzenegger: Well, I think that ever since my father stressed when I was a kid to be useful. I think it had an impact on me, and it stayed with me as a method, so much so that I always wanted to perform and do more. It became such a big part of my life that even when I sleep in - sometimes past 6:00 in the morning - I feel guilty because I hear my father's voice saying, "Arnold, that's not how this country was built, by sleeping in. Be useful, do something. What are you doing today?" And so, you know, I think that it just stayed with me.

AM: But even at that young of an age, you understood what that meant. You understood a deeper meaning of what being useful meant.

AS: Well, let's assume for a second I didn't know what it meant. My father would make sure that I knew. Just to give you an example, I was studying bodybuilding at the age of 15, and my father would say, "Why are you lifting these dumbbells and barbells? Don't you think it would be better to just go out and chop some wood and shovel some coals for some poor people that don't have anyone?" It was common in those days: neighbor kids would go and do that kind of chore for older people so that when the fall comes, they have it for the winter.

I looked up to this famous boxer by the name of Laszlo Papp. He's a Hungarian boxer, European champion, and he trains by chopping wood. And so, "Why couldn't YOU chop wood? And then therefore, you would get muscles, you get strong, get great energy, you will look great. But at the same time, you're doing something useful. You're doing something for somebody rather than just for yourself and looking in the mirror." So he would make sure that you knew what being useful meant.

What it means

AM: Is being useful the same as not being useless?

AS: Well, it's more proactive. I mean, being useful is not just hanging back and making mistakes. It's going out and using your energy and your time for something good, which means for yourself but also and always to think about other people. I think that we have to be aware of the fact that we are creations by a lot of people. We are not self-made. I hate when someone says, "Oh, Schwarzenegger is the perfect example of a self-made man" because I'm not. I'm a creation of my parents. I'm a creation of my coaches, my teachers. I have been helped by my training partners, by my friends. Especially when I think about coming to America, it was Joe Wheeler that helped me to come over here, got me the airline ticket, helped me get the apartment and the car. The people of California voted for me to be governor of California. So I didn't become governor because I'm self-made; I became governor because people voted for me.

AM: But it was a compliment. I mean, I think people meant it as a compliment that you were able to motivate yourself to accomplish these things.

AS: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it is a compliment, but it is very important to let people know: I really appreciate you saying that, but I'm a creation of all of this help.

I would not have done Twins if it wouldn't have been for Ivan Reitman. I would not have been able to do Conan the Barbarian if it wouldn't have been for John Milius. So there's so many people that helped me. And the reason why that is important, that we recognize that we are creations of people's help, is because that makes us then understand that we are responsible for going out and helping other people, that it is not a one-way street. You know, people help us to get to be where we are today, and therefore I now have the responsibility to go out and help other people to become successful.

The scope of usefulness

AM: Well, just how wide of a scope, then, does being useful need to be? Because I can imagine for you, I think you probably have to feel useful to a lot [more] people than I would. I mean, if I feel useful to my grandkids or to my wife, I feel pretty good about the day.

AS: I think that it really depends on you how far you want to go with that. One thing we know for sure: the majority of people really don't feel like they're useful enough or they are successful enough. And this is what this book is all about: Be Useful is to give people the tools. How can they go and become more useful? How can they become more successful? How can they become happier with their lives, their jobs and everything that they are doing?

You have to understand that no matter what we do, there's someone there that can help you with that. If I want to go and learn how to ski, I take ski lessons. If I want to learn about bodybuilding, I'll go and get a fitness instructor. But there's really no one that provides usually the tools to success. I think what this book does is basically just say, look, here are some tools that I've used in my life. And the reason why I've become so successful in so many different areas is because I follow those rules and I applied those rules.

AM: So, for example, last year when you put out that video calling out Russia's misinformation campaign — and also telling Russia to stop the war in Ukraine — were you just expressing an opinion or were you trying to be useful?

AM: Both. Both to let the Russian soldiers and the Russian people know that this is an unjust war that is not provoked. There was no one there challenging Russia. This was a peaceful country, Ukraine, and they were minding their own business. All of a sudden, they're getting attacked. So that is not right. I think that we have to speak out because something's wrong, to help them to understand it — and at the same time to let people know around the world how I feel about it. It was just my opinion and also trying to be useful at the same time.

But, you know, this is not what this book is about. It's just really helping people to go to the next level when it comes to success. What I wanted to do is just let people know you don't have to have a job that you hate. If you take some time and create a vision for yourself and create a goal for yourself — and then chase that goal no matter how difficult it may be — life becomes kind of fun. Because to me, my life was always a lot of fun, even though I struggled a lot and I was battling it out, losing a lot of the battles and then winning some. It was always interesting and spicy and exciting because I knew what I was chasing all the time — to become Mr. Universe, or becoming the greatest bodybuilder in the world, or coming to America, or getting into movies and becoming a leading man, or running for governor. It doesn't matter what it is. It was always a fun chase.

Losing some battles

AM: You mentioned losing some battles. Which battles did you lose? I think when people think of your life, they think that almost anything you've tried, you've been a success.

AS: Well, maybe it was successful in the end, but to get there... One of the things I talk about is to not be afraid of failure. Because you're going to fail. When I was 19 years old, I was competing in the Mr. Universe contest and I lost. I came second. It was no big drama because I was hoping to be in the top six, but I came second so it was terrific. When I came to America, I lost the Mr. Olympia competition against Sergio Oliva. I lost one of the Mr. Universe contests in America against Frank Zane. I remember I lost power-lifting championships, weightlifting championships. I had movies that went in the toilet. I had policy issues and referendums that went in front of the people that I lost. There was a lot of things.

And of course, in my personal life, you know, my marriage is a big loss and this is a big failure. So there's a lot of losses and failures that I've had in the past in my life. And I think that it is important that we recognize that. But no matter what it is, I always had an exciting life and always chased something, and that made the whole thing worth it.

So many people — young people especially — when you ask them what do you want to do in life, they look at you kind of like the deer in the headlights and just don't know what to say. To me, that is a big problem, because I always felt that I was enriched by the fact that I always knew where I was going.

And then there were some things that were unexpected, like running for governor. That was something that kind of unfolded only because there was a recall election in California.

AM: You had the opportunity.

AS: All of a sudden, I had this vision: me being governor. And so I chased that vision. Going from promoting Terminator 3 and being this huge hit to all of a sudden going the other direction and saying, "I want to be a public servant." It was fun to chase that. I had this exact vision. I knew exactly what to say to the people and how to sell that idea, how to market myself, how to promote myself. I think this is the important thing: there's so many people that think small. They set a goal for themselves — a small goal because they're afraid to fail. And I tell people, don't be afraid to fail.

Setting goals

AM: Wait a second, YOU can have big goals. I think most people have to be happy with small goals in their lives. I don't think they can aspire to the things you can aspire to.

AS: No, because remember: when I was 15 years old, I was this ordinary Austrian boy, just like everyone else. I always had this dream that I want to be another Reg Park — a Mr. Universe who then did Hercules movies. So he became my idol. I wanted to win, like him, Mr. Universe several times and then be discovered in Hollywood. He was a fellow from England, from Leeds, from a factory town. I come from a factory down. Why could I not do that?

So I right away had a big vision to be like Reg Park (or to be Steve Reeves, an American version of Hercules). So, friends of mine wanted to be Mr. Austria; I right away thought of Mr. Universe, winning the world championship.

I remember when I was getting into movies, they said to me, maybe we can get you a job to play, maybe with your German accent, the Nazi officer. Or a bouncer or something like that. I mean, that's not what I wanted to do. I said I want to be a leading man. I right away shot for the big goal. And yes, it was riskier. It's very hard to climb the ladder. I said, forget about climbing the ladder — I'm going to create my own ladder and I'm going to climb that.

Now I'm going to show people how to do it.

Clear vision

AM: When it comes to having a clear vision, that's the first rule in your in your book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life. How do you get rid of the clutter to be able to have that clear vision? Because so much clutters up our lives.

AS: That's the key thing. You cannot go create a vision if your face is in the iPhone or iPad or the computer. That is not what creates a vision. That maybe makes you copy someone else, but it doesn't create a vision of something that you're really in touch with, that you feel like, I need to do this. I'm born to be this artist. I'm born to be a mechanic. I'm born to create my own garage and build muscle cars or whatever it may be. Everyone has something in them that makes them really want to go all out on something. You just need to apply those rules. Don't shoot for something small, shoot for something big. Don't be afraid of failure.

The key thing is: You work your ass off. One of the things that I know now being 76 years old: everything is directly related to work. The more you work your ass off, the further you're going to go. If you look for shortcuts, it's not going to happen. I've seen people in bodybuilding try to look for shortcuts. They never made it. I've seen it in acting. They have not made it. Everyone that was willing to work hard was able to make it and to become successful.

Selling yourself, selling your ideas, selling your vision is another very important part of this whole success formula. You have to convince people. You have to kind of communicate well. I mean, imagine when I was Governor of California and I said we have to reduce our greenhouse gases by 25% by the year 2020. Well, it was a great idea, but I now have to go and convince 40 million people in California that this is very important, that pollution kills people. We've got to have more renewable energy in California. We got to get rid of fossil fuels. We got to keep our nuclear reactors and nuclear power and blah, blah, blah, noise. And the people went along. The people went along because I sold the thing while I promoted it well, I marketed it well, I was communicating well. All of this is important in order to be successful.

The other one that I always tell people: let's do less talking and more listening. I have a chapter that says, shut your mouth and open your mind. It's very important because I think that if you always just talk, talk, talk, talk, you're not going to learn anything. The way you learn is if you just shut your mouth and listen to other people talk. Yes, you have to talk and yes, you have to communicate. But be aware that listening is really what makes you smart.

When I went into the capitol in Sacramento, I did a lot of listening because I had to learn very quickly about the various different policies, the various different issues. I mean, you go from one minute about prison guards' overtime, then you talk about the firefighters and talk about law enforcement. They talk about the nurses, the teachers. They talk about the crime. You're dealing with so many different subjects that from morning to night, it's better if you listen. Then if you sit down by yourself, without having the computers and the iPhone/iPads, that's how you get to be successful.

Breaking mirrors

AM: The last tool in your book is called Break Your Mirrors. What does that mean, break your mirrors?

AS: This is a saying that comes from my father-in-law [Sargent Shriver]. My father-in-law gave a speech at Yale University, a commencement speech, and there he said to the students: Break that mirror that makes you always look at yourself. And you will be able to look beyond that mirror and you will see the millions and millions of people that need your help.

My father-in-law was one of my idols. He created the Job Corps and the Peace Corps, legal aid to the poor and all of these various different organizations. And he was always out there trying to find something to help the less fortunate. He was also the chairman of the Special Olympics, and his wife Eunice Kennedy Shriver created the Special Olympics. They always worked on helping the people that needed help. So to me, that saying said it all: we should not be consumed about ourselves. Yes, you have to deal with yourself. You have to build itself. But don't ever think that this is the only responsibility you have. You have the responsibility to break the mirror and to look beyond yourself and see the millions of people that need your help. And to go out and help, giving back to the community, giving back the city, to your state, your country is the ultimate that you have to do. And everyone has the ability to give back something. If you have no money, you can give your time to the kids — in reading or in English or to collect clothes so that homeless people can go to job interviews. There's so many simple things that we can do to help the community.

I got addicted to it because I started working with Special Olympics and helping Special Olympians, you know, train with weights and then go into powerlifting. It felt so good to be able to help kids that normally are not included, not getting equal rights. Then I started getting caught up with the President's Council of Physical Fitness for President Bush. [I] travelled through all 50 states to promote health and fitness and exercising in the schools. And it just one thing led to the next, and eventually I ran for governor.

It just feels so good to give something back. I think that this is without any doubt the greatest country in the world. And I always want to tell people that, you know, to me, giving something back was absolutely a necessity because of everything that I have ever achieved was because of America. And so to me, to give back to America is the greatest kind of honor and pleasure.

The newest Air Force One jet, gifted to President Donald Trump from the Qatari government, arrived ahead of schedule Friday to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

On Friday afternoon, Trump toured the luxury Boeing 747 plane that initially stirred controversy. The plane was one of the biggest foreign gifts ever received by the U.S. government and raised legal and ethical questions after Qatar offered to replace the presidential jet last year. Trump said last May he'd be "stupid" not to accept the offer. Industry groups originally said the plane could be worth approximately $400 million.

Trump also spoke standing in front of the plane, thanking the Emir of Qatar.

The president praised the workmanship of the plane, describing it as the "world's most luxurious plane." He also called it the "largest Air Force One ever built," adding, "It flies further and faster than any Air Force One."

"This plane was transformed into a flying White House at a level of luxury that nobody's ever seen before, probably even almost outside of an airplane," Trump said. "Nobody's ever seen anything like this, and in only 10 months, a timeframe no one thought possible."

The exterior of the jet is no longer light blue, silver and white — a fixture since the Kennedy administration. Trump unveiled the new red, white and blue color scheme.

"It was time for a change. … Everything was designed good. It was my taste," Trump said, saying that he approved the new color scheme, which reflects the American flag.

The VC-25B Bridge aircraft will now undertake its commissioning flights, what the Air Force calls a "final exam" for the plane. The plane was modified after serving the Qatari Head of State.

"Once these flights are successfully completed, the aircraft is officially 'commissioned' into the active executive airlift fleet and becomes available for presidential missions," an Air Force press release said.

The aircraft from Qatar will "serve as a bridge until the [long-term] VC-25B is delivered," according to earlier communications from the Air Force. The plane was delivered well before expectations. The Air Force originally estimated the plane would be delivered in 2028 but said by modifying requirements it could deliver the first aircraft in 2027. The modifications "were carefully crafted to prioritize mission over aesthetics, leaving much of the previous head of state interior layout minimally changed," the Air Force said.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach praised the delivery.

"Many thought it could not be done, but the United States Air Force was able to execute and provide a secure, reliable airborne command post on an accelerated timeline," he said.

Vice President JD Vance has delayed his trip to Switzerland to negotiate the terms of a peace agreement with Iran on Friday.

It's unclear exactly why the talks were called off at the last minute, with hundreds of journalists already waiting in the alpine city of Lucerne.

But the delay raises questions over the sturdiness of the memorandum of understanding to end the war, signed by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

It came as Israel continued to heavily bombard Lebanon, despite the agreement promising to end all military operations, including in Lebanon.

Lebanese media said at least 18 were killed in overnight strikes, and Israel said four of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon.

Here are more details about the agreement and challenges they face in this latest effort to end the conflict:

US lifts naval blockade

There was immediate progress after the preliminary agreement to end the three-and-half month conflict that has killed thousands of people across the Middle East, rocked the global economy and pushed millions more into poverty around the world, according to the United Nations.

The United States lifted its naval blockade on Iran.

The short memorandum of understanding also promises to end military operations on all fronts and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway through which much of the world's oil, gas and fertilizer must pass to reach global markets.

The agreement prompted President Trump to celebrate on Truth Social writing: "Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!"

But there are still many potential pitfalls. Even before the agreement was signed, Trump made its fragility clear: "It's a memorandum of understanding," he said at the G7 summit in France. "If I don't like it, if they don't behave, we'll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head."

The document doesn't solve the underlying reason for why the United States and Israel went to war with Iran. It creates a 60-day window — extendable by mutual agreement — for the two sides to resolve the enmity that goes back many decades.

Israel remains defiant against the deal

The preliminary agreement promises to end all military operations, including in Lebanon. Israel has invaded and taken large swaths of southern Lebanon in an offensive it says is targeting the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah, which has killed more than 3,800 people, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has made clear that Iran considers Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon essential. "Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end," Araghchi said.

Israel wasn't involved in the negotiations with Iran — though Trump said at a press conference this week that he had sent Israel a copy of the document before he signed it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remained defiant, saying his troops will remain in southern Lebanon for as long as Israel's security requires it.

The conflict in Lebanon is causing an extraordinarily open rift between Trump and Netanyahu. "He's a very difficult guy," Trump said of the Israeli prime minister recently said to The New York Times.

On Thursday, Israel's military released a new map ⁠showing an expanded area of southern Lebanon occupied by its troops, which it describes as a buffer zone.

"Trump's agreement does not bind us," Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, wrote on social media on Monday. "We are not partners to this agreement that does not ensure our security."

Vice President Vance hit back at critics in the Israeli government, warning at a press conference that "Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time."

Trump signed the deal to avoid 'economic catastrophe'

The agreement promises "the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts" — including in Lebanon, where Israel has continued its offensive. Iran and the United States also promise "not to initiate" any further war or operation against each other. Not long after Trump signed the memorandum, U.S. Central Command said Thursday it had ended its naval blockade of ships to and from Iranian ports, as promised in the agreement.

Iranian state media reported the country's national security council will suspend tolls paid by ships for 60 days, per the deal, but that ships must still request Iran's permission — through a newly established Persian Gulf Strait Authority, before passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which was once considered an international waterway.

Increased ship traffic through the strait will come as a relief to Trump, whose approval ratings have been sliding as Americans see soaring gasoline prices and spiking inflation. Last month Trump insisted he doesn't think about Americans' financial situation in his approach to Iran.

But this week he acknowledged at a news conference that he had signed this agreement because he "didn't want to see an economic catastrophe."

The memorandum gives major concessions to Iran

Trump has repeatedly called the Iran nuclear deal — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — presided over by President Barack Obama in 2015 the "worst deal ever," and Trump abandoned the agreement in his first term in office. But the framework agreement signed this week hands major financial concessions to Iran that could ultimately go much further than the Obama-era arrangement.

The document says the U.S. will work with regional partners to create a fund of "at least $300 billion" for Iran's reconstruction and economic development. Vice President Vance has said Gulf Arab nations would invest that amount.

It also promises that the U.S. will unfreeze Iranian funds and assets that amount potentially to tens of billions of dollars. Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN Iran wants to see the release of $24 billion.

These commitments do depend on further negotiations. But the Trump administration also plans to issue sanction waivers to allow Iran to immediately sell its oil. The waiver concedes a major point of potential leverage at the start of these 60-day talks.

And the interim deal also opens the door to ending all U.S. and international sanctions on Iran. Iran has been under a plethora of U.S. sanctions since the 1979 Revolution. The penalties have kept Iran cut off from the global economy, preventing it, for example, from accessing the international banking sector. This new pledge goes far beyond the JCPOA deal, which removed some sanctions in exchange for Iran reducing its stockpile of uranium.

The negotiation over Iran's nuclear program

President Trump has boasted he will achieve a much "better" agreement than the JCPOA. The substantive talks on this are yet to begin, but so far, the commitment Iran has made in the memorandum that it "shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons" is the same promise it has made for years, including in the 2015 nuclear accord.

The details of Iran's nuclear program are complex and technical. The JCPOA was negotiated over years by the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China, with nuclear physicists and non-proliferation experts, and ran to 159 pages. Trump's framework was negotiated bilaterally by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — a property developer and the president's son-in-law. An Iranian diplomat who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly told NPR they believed the last round of talks with the Trump administration did not progress because "the Americans at the table did not understand the subject."

The U.S. had been negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program before abruptly launching the bombing campaign with Israel on Tehran that began this war on Feb. 28. For this latest round of talks, Witkoff and Kushner visited the national lab in Oak Ridge, Tenn., earlier this month for consultations with a team of technical experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

Has Iran come out of the war stronger?

Trump began the conflict promising to set conditions for regime change in Iran. "I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand," he told Iranians in a televised address on Feb. 28. "When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take."

It was a nightmare scenario for the Iranian regime, to face down the bombardment from two of the world's most powerful militaries. The war killed more than 3,300 Iranians, according to state media, including top leaders, and pounded the country's infrastructure and armed forces. But the regime's survival, and its ability to target U.S. assets in the region and control the Strait of Hormuz, empowered Iran.

The country has learned "that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works," Bill Cassidy, Republican senator from Louisiana, said in a blistering attack on the Trump administration. He called the offensive against Iran "the worst foreign policy blunder in decades."

Iran's response forced the Trump administration to set aside the goal of regime change to focus on seeking a way to reopen the vital strait.

"The only 'achievement' of the ceasefire is the likely reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — which was open before the war started. And we will apparently pay Iran to do so," Antony Blinken, who was secretary of state under former President Joe Biden, posted on X.

Trump has countered critics by saying on social media that anyone who thinks he hasn't "been tough enough on Iran," when the stock market is high and oil prices are falling, is either jealous, bad or stupid. And Vance called on critics to "have a little bit of faith in the president of the United States."

But in a hard accounting of the war, the facts are undeniable: Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz gave it the leverage to secure from Trump concessions that unlock vast sums of money — even more, potentially, than under Obama.

And regarding Iran's nuclear program, the Iranians so far appear not to have offered Trump any more concessions than they did at the Geneva talks two days before the U.S. and Israel launched their offensive in February.

Now new negotiations are set to begin, and the Iranians will be coming to the table having shown Trump, and the world, the power they can wield over the global economy.

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has witnessed more than a century of American history, in all its heartbreak and majesty. Crowds have gathered around it in protest and in praise, to denounce American wars and hear great voices sing and speak.

Today, it's the center of a slimy controversy.

President Donald Trump said in April he found the water in the reflecting pool "filthy" and "disgusting." He authorized a no-bid contract to resurface the basin of the 2,000-foot long pool and paint it "American flag blue" in time for July 4th celebrations.

"I have a guy who's unbelievable at doing swimming pools," the president crowed, before the National Park Service gave out no-bid contracts for sealing and upgrades.

After weeks of renovation, the project has cost taxpayers more than $14 million and … the reflecting pool looks green. And I mean green. Like the Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day. But that river is dyed green for a day. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is green because of algae.

Look, algae happens. It's clouded the reflecting pool since it was first filled in 1923. Algae blooms flourish when sunlight falls on warm, sluggish water — like you'd find in a shallow, still pool absorbing the glare and swelter of a Washington, D.C., summer.

But a University of Virginia satellite analysis commissioned by the Washington Post saw more algae in the Reflecting Pool this month than at any other time in the past five years.

The Interior Department says workers have deployed "a state-of-the-art ozone nanobubbler filtration system" to banish the algae.

"President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the reflecting pool for good," spokesperson Kate Martin said in a statement this week, "unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden."

That's a reference to a major project during President Barack Obama's first term to stop the pool from sinking and add a filtration system.

In these deeply divisive and partisan times, it's good to remind ourselves that many issues aren't just Republican red or Democratic blue. The Reflecting Pool algae doesn't care about our party lines. It's green, and it's not going anywhere.

Two smoke relief centers are now open for residents impacted by the Boyle Heights warehouse fire.

The centers in Boyle Heights and East L.A. offer resources such as masks, food, water, temporary shelter, pet assistance and information from public health and air quality officials. They’re open 24 hours a day until further notice.

The city’s Department of Recreation and Parks and Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office opened the Pecan Recreation Center as a smoke relief center Friday. A second center opened Saturday at City Terrace Park through the office of L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis. 

Here’s where they’re located: 

The fire broke out Wednesday, prompting an hours-long shelter-in-place order due to hazardous materials, including ammonia.

On Friday, a wind-driven flare-up at the site of the fire sent plumes of smoke over the city, hours after a second shelter-in-place order was lifted. Residents in the immediate area reported seeing ash on their homes and cars. On Saturday, many across Los Angeles County — from Pasadena to the West Adams neighborhood — also reported smelling smoke and experiencing poor air quality.

Two smoke relief centers are now open for residents impacted by the Boyle Heights warehouse fire.

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Courtesy City Terrace resident

)

Jurado and her team were in the residential neighborhood near the fire site Friday, distributing air purifiers and masks. She said community groups, including Proyecto Pastoral, Running Mamis and Centro CSO, also went door to door distributing masks. 

Residents can contact Jurado’s office at Boyle Heights City Hall to request air purifiers and masks or to make donations at (323) 526-9332.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass spoke outside the building Friday evening, praising firefighters’ efforts. She added that people in the area could expect to continue to see smoke, and she urged people and their pets to stay inside as much as possible. She asked people to wear masks when they needed to go outside.

“We know that this is concerning. This is inconvenient, but we are doing everything we can to end this as soon as possible,” she said. “And we want everyone to be safe in the meantime.”

Read more:

• What materials burned in the fire and what to know about air quality
• How to keep yourself safe from the dismal air quality driven by fires

The post Smoke relief shelters open for residents impacted by Boyle Heights warehouse fire appeared first on LA Local.