BOYLE HEIGHTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Crews continue to battle flare-ups of the massive warehouse fire in Boyle Heights days after it ignited, as the region sees significant impacts from the smoke.
The inferno began shortly before 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at a cold storage facility in the 1400 block of South Los Palos Street.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday for Los Angeles County in response to the ongoing firefight, directing state agencies to support local response efforts and help protect public health and safety. This comes after Mayor Karen Bass issued a local emergency declaration early Saturday afternoon to mobilize additional resources to the city for the days ahead.
The Los Angeles Fire Department described the massive blaze as a "very complex" fire with numerous hazards for firefighters.
No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
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More help is on the way after a state of emergency was declared for the warehouse fire in Boyle Heights.
The fire is still actively burning Monday morning, but more state resources are expected to arrive throughout the day.
Crews have been working around the clock, tearing down walls and using massive helicopters for water drops.
Firefighters warn smoke could still spike as they open up hidden spaces.
Air quality appears to be improving, but the impacts from the Boyle Heights warehouse fire are still being felt.
An air quality advisory will be in effect through at least 1:45 p.m. Monday.
Shifting winds continue to affect the direction of the widespread smoke. Parts of the Inland Empire and Orange County were seeing significant impacts Monday morning.
As we head into the afternoon hours, onshore winds will pick up again. That means any areas downwind of the Boyle Heights fire will continue to deal with hazy conditions and smoke.
Several Los Angeles Unified School District schools will temporarily relocate to alternate sites on Monday amid air quality concerns in the immediate area surrounding the burning warehouse in Boyle Heights, officials said.
In an announcement on Sunday, the LAUSD said the moves are being enacted out of an abundance of caution.
Dena Elementary and the Dacotah Early Education Center will relocate to Sunrise Elementary, 2821 E. Seventh St., Los Angeles, 90023.
The Eastman Early Education Center will relocate to Humphreys Avenue Elementary School, 500 S. Humphreys Ave., Los Angeles, 90022.
Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School will relocate to Belvedere Middle School, 312 N. Record Ave., Los Angeles, 90063.
"At all surrounding sites, all activities will take place indoors to support the health and safety of students and staff," the school district said in a statement. "We will continued to closely monitor conditions and work with Los Angeles Unified Office of Environmental Health and Safety, Air Quality Management District (AQMD), and public safety partners. If you have questions, please contact the school."
Days after a fire erupted at a warehouse in Boyle Heights, the Los Angeles Fire Department changed its tactics as the stubborn blaze continued to burn.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, LAFD Chief Jaime Moore said: "I've really got some great news for everybody, we've made some incredible headway since our last press conference" on Saturday afternoon.
"We brought in some -- as I mentioned yesterday -- some water-dropping helicopters that were larger, 3,000 gallons," Moore said. "They were dropping a retardant on it. We did those flights and then we started to go back to our traditional methods -- and that was our use of our ladder pipes."
The ladder pipes deliver between 1,500 and 2,000 gallons of water on the burning surface of the structure.
"What we did change was this: We split this building in half and we've been concentrating on saving what we call Cooler 1," the fire chief said, noting that that dimensions of the massive structure are 1,000 feet by 500 feet. "Cooler 1 has not had any fire impinge in it, so it hasn't been fully involved, so we've been able to keep that cool and isolated."
Meanwhile, firefighters with excavators have now gone into the part of the building known as Cooler 2, where the main fire burned, and the LAFD's heavy-equipment operators have torn off the well-insulated walls.
The walls "have corrugated steel on the outside, we have corrugated steel on the inside, and inside is the foam," Moore explained.
