The Brief

Thousands more students joined walkouts Friday to protest the Trump administration’s militarized crackdown on immigrants, detainment of children and violence against U.S. citizens protesting the raids.

By mid-afternoon, nearly 12,500 students from more than 85 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District had walked out, according to a district spokesperson. Hundreds of students in other districts — from Pasadena and the greater San Gabriel Valley to Orange County — also marched in their communities.

At Olive Vista Middle School in Sylmar, about 100 students—some as young as 11—walked out of their science, English, and math classes, then walked to a nearby park.

For many students, Friday’s walkout marks the first time they’ve ever participated in a protest. And after months of watching federal immigration agents violently detain people on social media, the students told LAist that protesting — on behalf of their communities and in honor of Renee Good and Alex Pretti — filled them with a sense of freedom and power.

Isaac, a seventh grader, walked out of science class.

“This felt like I was breaking out of some sort of chamber,” he told LAist. “I felt like I was being free for once.”

Many of the 12-year-old’s family members are from Mexico and he’s been worried about what could happen if they’re detained.

“I'm standing up for my family and my friends, our community, really,” he said. “The most we [can] do is what we're doing right now.”

After months of being scared every time his parents go to work, Isaac said the protest was a type of salve.

“It makes us feel better,” he said. “It makes us stronger.”

M, right, is a sixth grader at Olive Vista and organized the school's walkout.

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How to organize a middle school

A few weeks ago, M, an 11-year-old sixth grader at Olive Vista Middle School, asked her mom, Maritza Ocegueda, why students in Minnesota and elsewhere were walking out of school. LAist has agreed to refer to her solely by her first initial, after her mom raised concerns for her safety.

Ocegueda shared with her daughter that she walked out of Van Nuys High School as a junior in 2006 to protest proposed federal immigration legislation. Nearly 40,000 students from across Southern California joined the movement.

“ I was floored,” Ocegueda said. “It inspires me and gives me that little bit of hope… Maybe we can make a change.”

M decided to organize a walkout at her school concurrently with other students in the community. 

She made several lunchtime announcements about a walkout on Friday, Feb. 6 at 10:24 a.m.

“If you'd like to join, please come over here and if you have any questions, just ask me.”

Those announcements did not come easily to M, who is soft spoken and admittedly shy. “ I try to be the bravest I can,” she said. “ I want [my classmates] to understand how serious this [is] … [The federal government is not] letting people be themselves, like, they can't go to Home Depot without feeling unsafe.”

M, and several other students said some teachers and administrators discouraged their organizing. M said at one point she was pulled out of class for more than an hour to talk about the walkout.

“ One of the things I told the school [is] you dropped the ball because this is a learning moment,” Ocegueda said. However, she said she’s open to more conversations with school and district leaders on how to support students.

Maritza Ocegueda's daughter M organized Olive Vista Middle School's walkout. She said she's active in the community passing out food and clothes to unhoused neighbors and helping other people connect with resources.

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A Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson provided a statement that said students were informed that walkouts are not school-sponsored, there are spaces on campus for students to exercise their freedom of speech and that they would be marked absent for missed class periods. A similar message was posted to the school’s Facebook page Thursday afternoon.

“Administrators routinely meet with students to share safety information and clarify options for on-campus expression—not to threaten or discipline,” the statement read. “Leaving campus during instructional time without permission is discouraged; that message is about safety and supervision, not suppressing speech.”

M said that other teachers were more supportive and helped her spread the word about the walkout to other students.

“ What I've learned is students should not have to come protest 'cause that's what the adults should be doing,” M said. “Adults should know better to help out the community and students should not have to come out.”

Honks of support 

By mid-morning, students began to trickle out of Olive Vista.

As students joined the group of young activists, those already outside cheered and passing cars honked their horns in support. One SUV had a Mexican flag poking out of the sunroof.

Out by the curb, some of their parents, including M’s mom, were waiting. The adults encouraged the students to stick together and made sure the group waited for the light to turn before crossing the street to Sylmar Park.

" What's in my heart is that my parents are Mexican and I wanna support," said Jayden, an Olive Vista 6th grader.

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Once they gathered, the middle schoolers held up homemade signs and flags of Latin America.

One student turned to a friend and nervously quipped: “I just really hope we don’t get shot or tear gassed.”

‘They don't understand how much we love our parents.’

In conversation with LAist, multiple students said they live in fear of being separated from their families. They also worry that their parents could be mistreated if they are detained by federal agents.

Eleven-year-old Alejandro, for instance, usually goes to Sylmar Park to play baseball. Today, he said, he went to the protest to honor his mom and dad, Mexican immigrants from the states of Michoacán and Jalisco.

To critics who think he should have stayed in class, he said: “They don't understand how much we love our parents.”

“I just don't like how Donald Trump is calling us ‘animals,’ when we're the ones working our asses off to live paycheck to paycheck, while he's up there sitting in his chair throwing out orders at Kristi Noem,” said eighth-grader Jesús, referring to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

The 13-year-old had his family and his neighbors in mind during the protest, along with 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, whose deportation the federal government is working to expedite.

“The little boy who was captured with his little bunny hat, he was captured and he was sent to prison,” Jesús noted. “And that's just crazy, because how are you going to let a little kid inside a prison?”

The federal immigration activity in the San Fernando Valley has also left him feeling nervous, even when he is on campus. “I'm trying to study and then I just get reminded: maybe there's somebody waiting outside to take us.”

Sixth grader Sophia’ said she walked out for her grandmother who’s from Mexico. "I wanna represent our people and show that we aren't bad," Sophia said. "We are actually, like, a great community."

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As the students chanted and waved their signs, adults passed out snacks, water and pizza purchased with money donated from the community.

“They're here with clear intentions and they're here for a purpose,” said Michelle, the parent of another young protestor who requested LAist only use her first name. “I’m just proud of them.”

M, the organizer, said she wouldn’t have used that term to describe herself before the protest.

“Now that I'm looking at myself, I do see myself as a helper,” M said. She plans to continue helping her community, for example by distributing food and clothes to unhoused neighbors.

And she has some advice for any aspiring student organizers.

“ I was a shy kid, so I want them to be brave and speak up,” M said.

She said she planned to finish up the day at school after she ate.

A Los Angeles County grand jury has indicted Nick Reiner on murder charges in the killings of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, and adds the allegation that he was lying in wait before attacking them.

The grand jury, which had been meeting in secret, returned the indictment on July 20, and it was unsealed Wednesday, when 32-year-old Nick Reiner entered a not guilty plea.

Rob Reiner, a director, actor and Hollywood luminary, and his wife, a photographer and producer, were stabbed to death in their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles on Dec. 14. Nick Reiner was arrested within hours and charged two days later.

Why the indictment matters

The grand jury indictment is a major step toward trial and allows prosecutors to skip California’s preliminary hearing process, where evidence is publicly aired.

Lying in wait means a suspect waited for or hid from victims in order to ambush them, and as an allegation it’s meant to show premeditation. A finding that he was lying in wait along with a murder conviction would make Reiner eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutors said they haven’t decided whether to seek it.

“This was a profound betrayal by someone who was loved and trusted by the very people he is accused of killing,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “We hope that by having a grand jury return an indictment in this case it will bring us one step closer to a trial and achieving justice.”

What does the indictment say?

Prosecutors have said nothing about possible motives, and leaks in the case have been virtually nonexistent on both sides.

The Los Angeles County chief medical examiner told The Associated Press he would like to make their autopsy reports public, but a court order has prevented him from doing so.

The unsealed indictment reveals few new details in a case that has been shrouded in secrecy. It does not explain how or why Reiner was lying in wait. Without elaborating, prosecutors have said since December that the parents were stabbed. The indictment includes a special allegation of use of a deadly weapon — a knife — that could also contribute to a stiffer sentence.

What about the trust funds?

The indictment comes as Reiner is seeking unpaid money from a trust his parents established for him, saying he needs it to help in his defense.

Reiner said in a court petition that the trustees who oversee the funds have denied them to him without legal justification. The money was to have gone to Nick Reiner even if his parents were alive, legal filings say. The petition says the trust has at least $1.5 million in assets, but trustees would not share the exact amount.

“Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths. But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue,” the petition says.

He is seeking to hire back high-profile criminal defense attorney Alan Jackson, who initially represented him before Reiner’s siblings would no longer agree to fund his defense and a public defender took over.

A hearing on the petition is set for next week.

The LA County Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Reiner, declined to comment on the indictment.

Why is this process shrouded in secrecy?

California prosecutors can charge a defendant and take the case through a preliminary hearing — a sort of trial in miniature where evidence is publicly aired and a judge decides whether it should be sent to trial — as recently happened with singer D4vd.

Or they can use a grand jury to go through the process in secret. They can also publicly file charges and later seek a secret grand jury indictment, essentially creating a new version of the case, as happened here and in the Los Angeles prosecution of Harvey Weinstein.

Remembering Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner began as an actor, starring in the TV sitcom, “All in the Family,” as Michael “Meathead” Stivic, the liberal son-in-law to a much more conservative and bigoted Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor. Reiner won two Emmy Awards for the role, and last month got a posthumous Emmy nomination for his work as a guest star on “The Bear.”

He became a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ’90s. His credits included “This is Spinal Tap,” “Stand By Me,” “A Few Good Men,” and “When Harry Met Sally…” during the production of which he met photographer Michele Singer. They wed soon after and were married for 36 years.

Nick Reiner was the second of the three children they had together. He and his father co-wrote the script for the 2015 film “Being Charlie,” which was partly based on the son’s teenage struggles with addiction and homelessness.

His older brother Jake Reiner wrote in April that the experience of losing his parents and having his brother at the center of it was “a living nightmare” that is “too devastating to comprehend.”

The City of L.A. is still on the hook for a potentially infinite amount of money if the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics are a financial failure.

But in the latest attempt to moderate that risk, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10-4 Wednesday to approve an overdue agreement with the private Olympic organizing committee LA28.

What to know about the agreement 

Matt Szabo, the City Administrative Officer who negotiated the agreement with LA28, spoke at Wednesday's council meeting.

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The deal lays out how LA28 will repay the city for services rendered during the Games, like traffic control. It establishes that the city will seek reimbursement for the cost of policing venues from the federal government, which is overseeing Olympics security.

The council also approved an amendment to a 2021 agreement between the city and LA28 that allows the city to tap an LA28 contingency fund to recoup security costs if the federal government doesn't cover those expenses.

Matt Szabo, the City Administrative Officer who negotiated the agreement with LA28 alongside the city's Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso, acknowledged the agreement had big limitations. At the same time, he told the council Wednesday that he believed it was the best bet at protecting the city.

" This is not an agreement that is intended or even has the capability of eliminating risk that the city has agreed to take on," Szabo told the council. "The purpose is to limit the risk to the greatest extent possible. And we do believe that it achieves that."

Still, some in city government said the agreement doesn't go far enough to protect taxpayers.

"Despite being delivered months behind schedule, it still fails to establish a clear baseline of City services, financial protections for Los Angeles taxpayers, and accountability that the City needs to successfully host the Games," said Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who was one of four councilmembers to vote against the agreement, in a statement.

The agreement now heads to Mayor Karen Bass and Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson for a signature with LA28.

Concerns about the deal with security costs looming

A sticking point for dissenters is security costs — which are expected to be massive. Organizers and the city are counting on the federal government to pay for public safety at Olympic venues that are considered part of a "national special security event."

LA28 has not included security costs in its $7.1 billion budget — a fact that City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto criticized earlier this year.

The federal government has so far allocated $1 billion for security costs for the Olympics. Exactly where those federal funds will go has not yet been determined, and there's no guarantee they will cover all of L.A.'s policing costs.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell estimated LAPD personnel costs alone could exceed that total, putting the cost for his department at $1.15 billion in one budget memo issued earlier this year.

Protections for the city are limited

Under an agreement approved by the council Wednesday, if L.A. is not reimbursed by the federal government for all its eligible expenses, it could dip into LA28's contingency fund of $270 million before the private organizing committee could use that money for any legacy projects.

Here's the catch: that bucket will first be used for any costs that Olympics organizers still owe if they run out of revenue — meaning if the Olympics don't turn a profit, the city's access to that money will depend on how much is left for the taking.

" LA28 has no real incentive not to bankrupt us," said Chris Tyler with the community organization Strategic Actions for a Just Economy in public comment. "And if they come in under-fundraised and over-budget, taxpayers will be on the hook for billions of dollars potentially."

Szabo, the city administrative officer, said later in the council meeting that the Olympics turning a profit was in L.A. and LA28's best interest.

" We are joined at the hip here," he said. "They want a successful Olympics. They want to have a successful legacy for those '28 Olympics. We want a successful Olympics."

The agreement is late — and some still say it was rushed

At the Wednesday meeting, several city council members introduced six amendments to the agreement with LA28, aimed at clarifying or tightening LA28's obligation to the city.

All but one proposal was referred to committee for further discussion, and weren't included in the final agreement. Council President Harris-Dawson warned the council that approving amendments would send the city back into negotiations with LA28 that had already dragged on for years.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who introduced two amendments seeking to regularly audit LA28's finances and guarantee reimbursements for unexpected "health and safety incidents" related to the Games, responded saying she hadn't had adequate time to consider the deal.

" I have Dodger Stadium in my district, which is an Olympic venue," she said. "So you're asking me to make a decision on something that's going to impact us for years to come, and particularly within the heart of my district, but I was only briefed two weeks ago."

City Controller Kenneth Mejia also criticized the process in an interview with LAist.

" Why are we rushing through this thing so fast?" he said, calling the deal "fiscally irresponsible" and asking: "Why are we not trying to maximize protections for the city today?"

Some, though, told the council they thought the agreement, which was due Oct. 1, 2025, was already too delayed.

" Every additional month of delay reduces the run[way] for detailed planning for our businesses," said Jacqueline Iniguez with the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce in public comment. "The city and LA28 now need to move forward together quickly to keep the 2028 games on track." 

More big agreements ahead 

Jacie Prieto Lopez, a spokesperson for LA28, said Olympics organizers were proud of the final agreement, saying it "delivers on our commitment to execute a safe, secure, and fiscally responsible Games that benefit Los Angeles for decades to come."

The agreement approved by council Wednesday will serve as a master document as the city now goes on to execute "Venue Service Agreements" – even more specific agreements between LA28 and the city on what services will be provided at each venue in the city.

Other municipalities hosting Olympic venues will also have to execute their own agreements with LA28 on reimbursement.

How those agreements are inked will also have implications for the city of Los Angeles. It's the financial backer of the entire Olympics, whether the venues fall inside city boundaries or not.

On Wednesday morning, Los Angeles Unified School District students returned to campuses for the first day of school. For many, that meant coming back to schools located near a Boyle Heights warehouse that burned for more than a week in June.

The disaster forced the district to relocate summer programs at several nearby schools, including Christopher Dena Elementary. But on the morning of back-to-school, Maria Bravo said she was ready for her third-grade son and sixth-grade daughter to get back into Dena Elementary classrooms

“ I know that they're going to be in a good place here,” Bravo said. She said her kids needed a new routine after a summer spent largely indoors, trying to avoid the heat and the smell of rotting food wafting from the Lineage warehouse.

“They're going to find ways to keep them busy and active, and at the same time safe," Bravo said.

Principal Robert Salazar said classrooms have air purifiers and there’s a plan to bring students inside if rotting food smells interrupt recess or lunch.

“ It's like three plans — we have, A, B and C,” he said.

Karoline Linde, a 5th grade teacher at Dena Elementary, brought souvenirs back from a summer trip to Croatia to include in her Medieval Times unit. " You want the kids to succeed. You want the kids to do their best," Linde said. "That's my job as an educator. How am I gonna do that?"

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However, as has been true throughout the summer, the odor varied across the neighborhood.

At Eastman Elementary, Ivett Dominguez walked her child to Eastman Avenue Elementary School and told LAist the smell outside was “consistent and annoying,” but that she didn’t notice it inside her son’s classroom.

Other parents were more critical of the district’s decision to reopen the schools while the clean-up continued.

LAUSD Superintendent Andrés Chait visits a classroom at Belvedere Middle School the first day of the 2026-2027 school year.

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Andrés Chait, LAUSD’s superintendent, said preliminary attendance results showed about 92% of students enrolled at campuses near the burned warehouse came to the first day of school, exceeding the district’s overall attendance rate of 90%.

“[I have]  gratitude to our communities for having faith in us and in the measures that we took,” Chait said.

He said the district will take “corrective action” where lead and other toxins are found and that he’s directed his team to look into other ways for the district to advocate for climate justice.

“ Our primary role always is to provide education and academic advancement, but I think we can do more than that,” Chait said.

Some environmental health experts and advocates who reviewed the district’s testing results told LAist that school officials have more work to do on testing and cleaning at some campuses.

Environmental testing raises questions about long-term fire impact

District officials said environmental tests — which they released the day before school started — concluded the Boyle Heights warehouse fire did not result in widespread contamination at nearby campuses and affirmed the decision to reopen schools.

Soil tests found lead levels that exceeded California’s acceptable threshold at two elementary school campuses — Christopher Dena and City Terrace. The district said in its report that staff will evaluate whether more testing or cleanup at those sites is needed.

Carlos Torres, director of LAUSD’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety, said the front lawn at City Terrace and the tree wells at Dena, where elevated levels of lead were detected, have been fenced off.

At Christopher Dena Elementary in Boyle Heights, school officials fenced off a tree and a patch of soil where environmental testing found elevated levels of lead.

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Torres said the district doesn’t believe the lead is tied to the warehouse fire.

“Most likely this could be from things like lead-based paints from use in the past. It could be from agricultural use,” Torres told LAist on Tuesday. “There isn't such a thing as clean soil anywhere.”

The district said the levels of several other substances, including ammonia, formaldehyde and manganese, were low enough that they did not threaten the health of students or school staff.

Teacher Jose Salazar introduces Belvedere Middle School students to the different components of the career and technical education class which include engineering, child development and criminal justice on the first day of the 2026-2027 school year.

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Jill Johnston, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at UC Irvine, agreed that elevated lead levels in the soil at nearby schools could have been present before the warehouse fire.

But she expressed concern about test results for ammonia at three schools within two miles of the Lineage warehouse: Eastman Avenue Early Education Center, Humphreys Avenue Elementary School and Stevenson College and Career Prep.

Two indoor samples and one outdoor sample from those campuses were found to have between 319 and 327 micrograms of ammonia per cubic meter.

“Ammonia is a respiratory irritant,” Johnston said. “It can affect lung function, particularly in kids… Breathing in ammonia, particularly at levels that are much higher than background concentrations, is something we want to try to avoid, especially for vulnerable kids.”

California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment sets a 200 microgram safety limit for chronic exposure to ammonia, meaning situations where people are breathing in the chemical compound continuously. District officials noted that the test results were far below the state’s 3,200 microgram limit for acute exposure, meaning about an hour or less.

Johnston said closing schools would have been a difficult decision for district officials. But she said additional scrutiny and monitoring at those three schools is warranted.

“If they're also kids from the neighborhood, they're being exposed at home,” she said. “It just builds this evidence that we've been observing over the last several weeks, that toxic chemicals associated with the activities at Lineage are getting into the community, and in this case, is getting inside the schools.”

East L.A. has a long history of pollution linked to nearby freeways and dense industrial development. In May, about 25,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the streets after an underground pipe ruptured.

“This continues to remind us where our schools are located and how vulnerable our communities and schools are,” said Rocío Rivas, school Board vice president and representative for the neighborhood. “I think it's important to elevate the testing and continue to monitor regardless if there's a fire or not.”

The teachers union sent a letter to the superintendent on Aug. 6 with more than a dozen demands related to Boyle Heights schools, including additional environmental testing, heating, ventilation and cooling system upgrades.

“Fire-impacted school communities deserve more than assurances — they deserve an actionable plan that puts health and safety first,” wrote Gloria Martinez, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.

LAist reporter David Wagner contributed to this story.

With kids headed back to classrooms for the school year, environmental health officials with LAUSD say there is no significant health risk from air contamination for students in Boyle Heights and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Residents, though, continue to worry about the health effects of air pollution from the Lineage warehouse fire. They're still reporting headaches, nausea and difficulty breathing weeks after the fire was put out.

The fire began June 17 and burned for nearly a week, sending a plume of thick smoke into surrounding neighborhoods.

Then, after the fire was extinguished, tens of millions of pounds of refrigerated food stored in the massive warehouse rotted, sending foul odors and pests into the surrounding neighborhood. Lineage said 92% of the food had been removed as of Tuesday.

What's being measured

Much of the air quality data collected in the area after the fire comes from South Coast Air Quality Management District sensors located at Eastman Avenue Elementary School and Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School, both of which are less than a mile from the warehouse.

They take readings on an hourly basis and publish the data online.

Here's what these air quality monitors have been recording over the last few months:

• PM 2.5: The sensors at the two schools have been monitoring fine particulate matter since they were installed on June 19. They are able to pick up particles as small as 2.5 micrometers, or about 30 times smaller than a human hair. Particulate matter, in this case, was mostly associated with smoke generated while the fire was active.
• Methane: The sensors started measuring methane on July 9. Methane is a greenhouse gas that can be harmful to the environment and is only harmful to humans at extremely high concentrations. The sensors have picked up levels that are fairly typical for the region.
• Hydrogen sulfide: The sensors started measuring hydrogen sulfide on July 9. Hydrogen sulfide creates what’s often described as a “rotten egg” smell, and is the chemical that caused some of the stench created by the rotting food left behind after the fire. Still, scientists say just because people can smell it, that doesn’t mean the levels of hydrogen sulfide are high enough to cause harm. They say they haven’t seen huge peaks.
• Ammonia: The devices were not equipped with ammonia sensors until July 23. Like hydrogen sulfide, the chemical is also created by rotting food. Unlike hydrogen sulfide, ammonia was also used as a refrigerant at the facility. Ammonia levels have spiked repeatedly since the sensors went into use, with the most recent spike at the beginning of August. Scientists say ammonia exposure can have adverse health effects, especially on children and other vulnerable populations. Officials say levels are not consistently high enough to pose a risk.

What additional testing found

The Air Quality Management District also employed mobile monitoring to test test for several other compounds in neighborhoods near the fire immediately after it started.

While officials reported finding high levels of particulate matter, they reported other pollutants — including hydrogen fluoride and several toxic metals — to be mostly fall short of public healths standards that would raise concern. For example: Levels of bromine and chlorine while elevated stayed below the state’s short-term exposure threshold, which officials say is not unusual during structure fires.

The L.A. Unified School District also tested for other substances, including lead and formaldehyde, and says schools in the area are safe for students. At the same time, they flagged that lead levels at two schools are higher than California’s acceptable standard.

South Coast AQMD did not respond to LAist's questions before publication time.

Air quality monitors near the Lineage warehouse measure four main substances: particulate matter, methane, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. But scientists say there could be other pollutants that aren't being picked up.

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Why ammonia is concerning 

Despite assertions from environmental health officials that the neighborhoods around the warehouse are now safe, some scientists and community members continue to worry about air pollution.

Jill Johnston, associate professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at UC Irvine, said the spikes reported in ammonia levels are particularly worrisome.

“Ammonia is an air toxicant. It's a respiratory irritant,” she said. “[It] can also cause eyes, nose, throat irritation, and suppression of your lung function.”

Johnston found that ammonia levels have been spiking ever since the sensors that pick up the chemical were installed in late July, and as recently as the last few weeks.

An analysis published Aug. 5 by the Community and Environment Research Lab at UC Irvine and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice found high levels of ammonia in streets close to Lineage.

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Environmental health officials with LAUSD say the ammonia levels found at nearby schools were not persistent or widespread enough to amount to a health hazard.

Johnston stopped short of saying it’s definitely the cause of the symptoms local residents continue report, which include headaches, nausea and difficulty breathing.

“Those symptoms can come from a lot of different chemicals, so it's not like a linear correlation there,” Johnston said.

Still, she says there’s simply not enough understanding of how long-term ammonia exposure affects the human body, especially when it comes to children and other vulnerable populations.

Why it's hard to detect other pollutants

The ammonia could also be a sign of other contaminants that have yet to be tested.

“Ammonia may just be a marker of a whole mixture of pollutants coming from the site,” Johnston said. “We just totally don't know yet because those haven't been fully characterized.”

The bottom line is, Johnston says, air quality monitoring has its limits, and there is a lot that isn’t measured or understood when it comes to air pollution following industrial fires like the one at the Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights.

The limitations go beyond industrial fires.

Scientists have developed technology that’s significantly more advanced than the standard sensors used by most air quality management officials for routine pollution monitoring. The more complex sensors can pick up a wider range of pollutants.

More advanced technology, however, is also more complicated to use, which limits its use in the field.

How to report an air quality issue

South Coast AQMD gives you three ways to file a complaint:

• Call 1-800-CUT-SMOG (1-800-288-7664)
• Visit www.AQMD.gov/Complaints
• Using the South Coast AQMD Mobile App

Be prepared to share:

• Date and time of what you experienced
• Type of air quality event (odors, dust, asbestos, smoke, etc.)
• Odor description (gas, chemical, rotten eggs or other familiar odor)
• Address or location of suspected source