Several people are gathered around or in the circular water fountain in South Park circa 1962.
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From the collection of Ernest Marquez courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library TESSA collection.
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Topline:
Los Angeles has the most diversity in design for street lighting compared to any other American city. A new book, “Electric Moons,” explores how street lights depict L.A. history.
The backstory: The first electric lights hit the L.A. streets in 1882. The progress of electricity was “important in making L.A. a quintessentially modern and progressive city,” author India Mandelkern says. There are over 400 streetlamp designs across the city — not counting other cities in the county.
Listen in: The How to LA team goes to MacArthur Park and Silver Lake to explore two locations with dense streetlamp diversity. Mandelkern calls it a “streetlight safari.”
L.A. is known for a lot of unique things: Our people and communities, our food, our entertainment scenes, our beautiful hikes and access to nature.
But one thing we're not really that known for — or may know about — is our rich historical architecture.
Yes, we have a nice list of Victorian and Queen Anne homes in Angelino Heights, beautiful examples of art deco in downtown and craftsman homes in Mid City, but a lot of beautiful buildings have been knocked down and paved over, largely in the name of progress (i.e. 10 Freeway, L.A Civic Center).
But many of our earliest streetlights still stand; actually they may be the oldest thing in any neighborhood.
“When you're standing here and you're looking at an old streetlight from the 1920s, there's a really good chance that it's the oldest thing in your field of view,” says writer, historian and streetlamp enthusiast India Mandelkern. “It's older than the road, older than the buildings. They really do connect us to the past.”
When it comes to historical design, Los Angeles doesn't top a lot of people's lists. Compared to a San Francisco or New York, L.A. can feel a lot... newer. But we do have those cities beat in one category: our streetlights.
When it comes to historical design, Los Angeles doesn't top a lot of people's lists. Compared to a San Francisco or New York, L.A. can feel a lot... newer. But we do have those cities beat in one category: our streetlights.
We have a special history and diversity of designs for our streetlights that go back to the late 1800s.
“There is something that's almost a little bit sacred about an old streetlight,” she says. “They're these modern totems that represented the collective aspirations of our communities.”
Exploring L.A.'s streetlights
Mandelkern began her journey into her “streetlight safari” — what she calls the exploration of streetlamps — during her time as a fellow at LACMA. She created a zine that highlighted Chris Burden’s “Urban Light” public art, which led her to more research about the city’s street lighting. She also credits the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting as helpful in all her history gathering.
In her book, before digging into the actual lamps and architecture, she notes that the Chumash and Tongva tribes have always looked to the lights of the sky — the sun and the stars — to guide them, already making the Los Angeles region a unique place.
As the region became more urbanized and more populated around the turn of the last century, there’d sometimes be no buildings or paved roads — but at least there’d be light.
“If you look at these early advertisements for various subdivisions around L.A., they'll often call out the fact that they have streetlights in addition to … concrete paved roads,” Mandelkern notes. “Streetlights were very much part of the advertisement as a modern residential neighborhood.”
Before lamps went electric, they were gas powered and unreliable. They had to be turned on manually and would blow out with gusts of wind.
The first electric lights hit the L.A. streets in 1882. The progress of electricity was “important in making L.A. a quintessentially modern and progressive city,” Mandelkern says.
And, of course, there was a shift in street lighting in L.A. as cars became the dominant mode of transportation. You might notice some lights point toward the road instead of centering the pedestrian experience on the sidewalk. Other lamps might have light in both directions.
MacArthur Park’s streetlights
Just near MacArthur Park alone, there is variety in the streetlights. Mandelkern says wandering this area is “urban archaeology at its finest.”
The Wilshire Lantern in McArthur Park was installed throughout the city in 1928.
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Courtesy of Hat and Beard Press
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On the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Park View Street, there are at least four different types of streetlights. One iconic example is the “Wilshire Lantern.”
This particular streetlight from 1928 is a metal pole with a four-sided light box. Its fixture and decor is regal, with four topless women perched at each corner. (Mandelkern notes she doesn’t know whether they're supposed to be “classical Greek figures or flapper dancers.”) They were part of a project to improve Wilshire, to make it more similar to a Fifth Avenue or a Champs-Élysées.
“In order to make that believable, we needed to have really awesome street lights too, in addition to the landscaping and the paving and the road widening and all of these other improvements,” Mandelkern says.
These lanterns, at one point, lined the street all the way to Fairfax Avenue.
Why there's so much variety here
Mandelkern emphasizes that L.A. doesn’t have the most streetlights (there are 223,000 of them), but there are over 400 designs in the city — not counting other cities in the county like Pasadena, or Inglewood.
One industry factor that helped foster different designs was that a few manufacturers, like Marbelite, were L.A.-based companies. And those businesses specialized in different materials, such as concrete or metal. You might spot some of their names stamped on the side or bottom of the light fixtures, by the way.
Behind a decorative streetlight is the Koster House circa 1965, a Queen Anne-style residence at 507 W. Second St. on Bunker Hill. Various apartment buildings, parking lots, the Los Angeles Times building, and City Hall are seen in the distance on the right.
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Courtesy of the LA Public Library TESSA collection
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The way streetlights were set up in previous decades also tell us about the haves and have nots.
“Most of the [historic] streetlights that survive are often tend to be in whiter, wealthier neighborhoods, where there are more people who actually own homes instead of rent because paying for streetlights is the decision of the homeowner,” Mandelkern says.
Oftentimes, one block or group of homes would be illuminated while the next group would remain dark.
“It tells you who wanted to be seen, who wanted illumination, and who either couldn't afford it or … wanted to be left in the dark,” adds Mandelkern.
Maybe next time you’re out on a walk or on the way to work, check out the nearest streetlight and see what kind of story it might depict to you.
Streetlights “can mean progress. But they can also mean romance and nostalgia. They can mean policemen that you didn't really have to pay for. They can mean community, but they can also mean loneliness. And I think that it all depends on context and what we project onto these lamps,” Mandelkern says.
Rob Reiner, center, and wife Michele Singer Reiner and son Nick Reiner attendan event in L.A. Nick Reiner has been charged in his parents killings and now faces additional allegations.
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Michael Buckner
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Getty Images
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Topline:
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.
Why now: 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.
About the killings: 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.
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.”
Libby Rainey
has been tracking how L.A. is preparing for the 2028 Olympic Games.
Published August 12, 2026 6:49 PM
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium will share the opening ceremony. The Coliseum will be the site of the closing ceremony.
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Myung J. Chun
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Getty Images
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Topline:
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 its risk, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10-4 Wednesday to approve an overdue agreement with the private Olympic organizing committee LA28.
The deal: The agreement 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.
What the city's negotiators say: Matt Szabo, the City Administrative Officer, told the council Wednesday that the agreement was the best bet at protecting the city.
Read on… for the other concerns among officials about the agreement and what it could mean for taxpayers.
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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Courtesy L.A. City Council
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YouTube
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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
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.
Keep up with LAist.
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How Boyle Heights families felt at first bell ring
Mariana Dale
explores and explains the forces that shape how and what kids learn from kindergarten to high school.
Published August 12, 2026 5:53 PM
Parents and students head inside Christopher Dena Elementary in Boyle Heights on the first day of school in the L.A. Unified School District on Aug. 12, 2026.
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Mariana Dale/LAist
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Topline:
Students returned to dozens of schools near the site of the Boyle Heights warehouse fire Wednesday. District officials said preliminary attendance results showed that about 92% of students enrolled at those campuses came to the first day of school, exceeding the district’s overall attendance rate of 90%.
The backstory: There are 55 schools within a 3-mile radius of the burned Lineage warehouse, according to L.A. Unified School District officials. District leaders said all of the schools received new air filters and purifiers in the classrooms in addition to a rigorous cleaning.
Testing reveals lead, other contaminants: School 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 schools, and affirmed their determination that schools were safe to reopen. The tests found levels of lead that exceeded state safety thresholds in soil samples from two schools near the Lineage warehouse, but officials said that contamination was likely present from past industrial pollution, not necessarily from the recent fire.
Read on… to hear why one environmental health expert said ammonia testing results at three schools gave her cause for concern.
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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Mariana Dale/LAist
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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.
LAUSD Superintendent Andrés Chait visits a classroom at Belvedere Middle School the first day of the 2026-2027 school year.
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Mariana Dale/LAist
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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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Mariana Dale/LAist
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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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Mariana Dale/LAist
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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.
“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.”
“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.
Lucas Brady Woods
covers the weather and disasters, among other climate and science topics.
Published August 12, 2026 5:35 PM
Officials say air quality in the neighborhoods surrounding the site of the Lineage warehouse fire in Boyle Heights is safe. Scientists and community members continue to report health effects.
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Allen J. Schaben
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Topline:
Air quality monitors say levels of particulate matter, methane, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia are safe following the Lineage warehouse fire. Some scientists are not so sure.
The details: Two air quality sensors near the site of the fire measure four substances each hour: fine particulate matter, methane, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. Hydrogen sulfide and ammonia are behind some of the foul odors emanating from rotting food. But scientists say, unlike hydrogen sulfide, ammonia levels have spiked repeatedly, even over the last few weeks.
Why it matters: Ammonia can be toxic, but officials say levels are not consistently high enough to be considered a health issue. Scientists also stopped short of blaming it for the symptoms local residents continue to report, including headaches, dizziness and nausea. But they said it could be a sign of other contaminants that aren’t being measured.
Read on…to learn more about what’s being measured, and what’s not.
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.
Then, after the fire was extinguished, tens of millions of pounds of refrigerated food stored in the massive warehouse rotted, sending foul odors and pestsinto 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.
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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Allen J. Schaben
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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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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UC Irvine
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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:
